The interest of this research lies within the realm of development studies by more specifically studying the relationships between social capital and labor market outcomes. The main purpose is to explore the role of social capital in explaining employment outcomes. This research developed an integrated model of social capital and employment outcomes, combining the development literature view of social capital with mechanisms of social capital influence on labor market outcomes as introduced in sociological literature. The development literature approach incorporated in the model foresees different elements of social capital potentially playing a varied role in employment outcomes. It is in this regard that the integrated model of social capital and labor market outcomes was supported by evidence: it pointed to the multifaceted nature of social capital as different aspects of social capital contribute toward explaining employment outcomes of diverse groups.

The second part of the model proposed mechanisms on how social capital may influence labor market outcomes relating to the cost of social capital, information flow and homophily. According to the proposed theoretical functioning of these mechanisms, it is expected that disadvantaged groups tend to rely more on social networks in finding jobs and they also tend to rely more on strong ties. This weakness of strong ties explanation, however, fell short in this analysis in explaining the mechanisms of utilizing social capital networks for labor market participation and the differentiated labor market outcomes across groups.

Thus, the integrated model of social capital and labor market outcomes helped to demonstrate the complexity of social capital in the sense that it is different aspects of social capital that contribute to explaining employment outcomes. However, the proposed mechanisms of social capital influence on employment in the model were not supported by empirical evidence. It is thus the asset model analysis whereby social capital is one of the assets at the disposal of individuals that provided a more consistent framework for understanding the relationships between social capital and employment outcomes for different population groups.