How Does Sector Matter in Job Preferences? An Adaptive Choice-Based Conjoint Analysis

Abstract

Despite considerable research on attraction to public service jobs, it remains challenging to determine the extent to which the employment sector influences job choice decisions and how the public sector compares to other sectors in these decisions. This study tackles this scholarly and practical issue by employing an adaptive choice-based conjoint (ACBC) design to analyze job preferences among young and highly educated professionals in Germany, an attractive recruitment target. ACBC is advantageous compared to other conjoint designs as it more comprehensively accounts for job search as a multi-incentive, multi-stage process, in which candidates consider many attributes simultaneously and apply both compensatory and non-compensatory decision rules. The results demonstrate that the employment sector has relatively low importance in job preferences and is negotiable for the vast majority of respondents. However, when the sector matters, the public sector is more attractive than the private and nonprofit sectors. By further transitioning from a variable- to a person-centered approach, we identify three subgroups, one of which—termed impact-driven individualists—assigns considerably higher importance to the employment sector and greater utility to the public sector than others. These results hold important implications for adjusting recruitment strategies to different target groups.