Volunteering as a Pathway to Employment: Does Volunteering Increase Odds of Finding a Job for the Out of Work?

While economists have studied numerous strategies for unemployed persons to increase their chances of finding employment through activities such as acquiring additional training or education, there is little empirical literature to date on the extent to which volunteering can serve to maximize one’s chances of finding employment. This paper aims to fill this critical gap by using statistical techniques to test the hypothesis that volunteering is associated with an increased likelihood of finding employment for individuals out of work.