To examine how intense labor market competition affects the accuracy and informativeness of crowdsourced workplace reviews on social media platforms.
Analyzed employer review data from Glassdoor alongside labor market competition metrics for U.S. publicly listed firms between 2011 and 2022.
Evaluated variations across employee network breadth, firm-level unionization rates, and the total volume of employer reviews.
Tracked downstream consequences of review sentiment on short-term hiring inflows and subsequent employee turnover.
Higher labor market competition significantly reduced the informativeness of Glassdoor reviews regarding actual workplace practices, indicating strategic workplace information management.
Informativeness declined more heavily when employees possessed narrower external networks, when firms were less unionized, and when firms maintained a smaller overall review base.
Favorable reviews in highly competitive labor markets predicted elevated short-term labor inflows but higher subsequent employee turnover, reflecting an expectation-reality gap.