Estimation of the US Federal Job Queue in the Presence of an Endogenous Union Queue

Past research on the federal sector job queue fails to incorporate the important role of unionization. The authors estimate a two-stage bivariate probit in which the willingness of a worker to queue for a union job enters the estimation of the federal queue. They demonstrate that the failure to implement their approach may lead to the inappropriate conclusion that there does not exist a federal queue in the U.S. labor market. The authors identify the characteristics that lead workers to seek employment in the federal sector and, as a byproduct, also provide independent confirmation of the presence of a queue for union jobs.