Based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), multiple governments around the world are reducing the unemployment benefits to pressure job seekers to find jobs. In some locations, they increase the need to meet with an employment advisor as both financial pressure and social support positively affect the intensity of the search (Van Hoye et al. 2015). The challenge in the workplace is to find the right fit with the available jobs. This is even truer as job seekers do not evaluate job advertisements the same way, preferring certain signals over others depending on their job search context (Mauger and Bryant-Lees 2022). In this article, we show how financial pressure and/or social support moderate the job seekers’ evaluation of the signals sent by companies. Using an exploratory research method made of an analysis of variance (ANOVA), an ordinal regression and a multilinear regression, findings from Poland add to the literature on attributes’ preference. Results show that money and friends impact the way job seekers evaluate attributes signalling rewards, image of the company and interpersonal relationships. On the other hand, the evaluation of the attributes signalling nature of work and job security are not impacted by the situational context.
