The analysis of employment search has traditionally been based on the hypothesis that individuals only look for work when they are unemployed. This study analyses, from both a theoretical and empirical view-point, the implications and determining factors that influence the individual decision to initiate the search for work while still in employment. The possibility of using information from the Pilot Survey on Earnings and Subemployment has allowed us to estimate a wage equation which will subsequently be used in the model with information taken from the Survey on the Active Population. Despite the relatively limited significance of this phenomenon in the Spanish labour market, the empirical results show that both wage and sociolabour conditions exercise a substantial influence on the decision taken by the employed individual of whether or not to start looking for work.