Policy Dialogue: The Chances and Risks of Algorithmic Matchmaking in the Labor Market

Conference

Friday, 5 September 2025
12:30 – 15:15
KOF Swiss Economic Institute, Zurich

This event is co-organized with the nccr – on the move project Monitoring Ethnic and Immigrant Discrimination in Hiring Decisions in Times of Crisis.

Matching workers to jobs is one of the most essential forces enabling and fostering individual mobility across space and economic spheres. Matching algorithms play an increasingly important role in this process. On job and recruitment platforms, social networks, and online crowdsourcing platforms, these algorithms automatically suggest job openings to job seekers and job seekers to firms. What are the advantages and disadvantages of matching algorithms? Can automated matchmaking enhance the efficiency of the matching process and reduce unequal treatment of job seekers by providing more relevant job opportunities or reducing informational deficits of certain job seekers? Do they disadvantage certain job seekers by learning and encoding discriminatory recruiter preferences? We will explore these and related questions at a policy event co-organized by the KOF Swiss Economic Institute at ETH Zurich and the nccr – on the move. The event is aimed at academics and representatives of the federal government, cantons, municipalities, companies, and non-governmental organizations interested in the opportunities and risks of automated matching tools in the labor market.

The core of the program is keynote speeches by two internationally renowned experts on recommender systems: Peter Kuhn and Anikó Hannák.

More Information and Program (PDF)

The event will take place at the KOF building, Leonhardstrasse 21, Room LEE E 101, Zurich. The event is in English. Please register by 22 August 2025 by way of this link.