more importantly, these findings confirm that those in more remote areas (such as the
isolated settlements of Sutherland) are more likely to invest in domestic ICT facilities and
use the Internet to look for work. In these areas (more so than semi-rural or peri-urban
labour markets) there may be an awareness that the weakness of formal service
infrastructures necessitates the adoption of ‘alternative’ job search strategies and
approaches to social networking, with web-based activities offering one potential source
of information and communication (Lindsay et al., 2001). However, it should be noted
throughout that ICT-based job seeking remains the activity of a minority. For most
unemployed people, across a range of skill groups and social classes, technology-based
forms of job seeking and social interaction remain a somewhat obscure concept.
Discussion and conclusions
This paper has sought to examine the current and potential role of ICT as a tool for
providing job search services and social networking opportunities for the unemployed in
rural labour markets. The above findings demonstrate that while ICT plays some role in
the job seeking activities of the unemployed in these areas, it remains of marginal
importance, compared to informal face-to-face networking (especially in more remote
rural areas) and the use of formal Jobcentre facilities in peri-urban labour markets.
Whereas in West Lothian the weekly job seeking activities reported by the unemployed
were dominated by the use of Jobcentre information services and the counselling
provided by the agency’s staff, Wick and Sutherland job seekers were much more likely
to rely on a combination of personal contacts and direct approaches to employers. In
both areas, a small but not insignificant group of job seekers used the Internet on a
regular basis to look for work. However, in both areas few or no job seekers had
successfully identified the last opportunity that they had pursued through the Internet.
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