Commentary
Once upon a time, the labor market was mostly local. Businesses placed small ads in newspapers, received a handful of applications, and made their selections from there. Each stage of the process, from the cost of advertising to writing and mailing applications, to having personnel review them, involved significant marginal costs. There was friction—job seekers had to spend money to send applications, or for some jobs they had to show up in person to apply. The system wasn’t scalable from either side.