IAB research project on quarterly statistics relating to vacant positions on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs : Final report

Abstract

"With the results of the project presented here, the connection between the macroeconomic supply of jobs and new recruitments is examined for Germany for the first time. In an administrative agreement between the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) and the Federal Employment Agency (BA), a research project was defined that was to investigate whether vacant positions were a valid pre-indicator of the development in employment. To do this, the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) was assigned various central research questions which were to be answered using the data from the Job Vacancy Survey (EGS). In doing so, the analyses did not need to be limited to particular branches of the economy, types of establishment, or job profiles as the EGS provides representative information on the number of vacant jobs throughout all branches of the economy, establishments and regions, etc. Data on employment relationships that have newly begun (BebVBV) come from the statistics of the Federal Employment Agency and mirror the number of new recruitments in employment relationships subject to social security contributions. In addition to this we take new recruitments in marginal, part-time work into account - likewise from the official labour market statistics of the Federal Employment Agency. These are of interest because the fluctuation in this segment of the labour market is comparatively high and because, here, the relationship between open jobs and new recruitments is of a different nature than that of employment subject to social security contributions. The key results of the project are summarized in this final report which represents a consolidated version of the two intermediate reports. In addition to this, it also contains the results of new regression analyses." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku)

Cite article

Pausch, S. & Szameitat, J. (2011): IAB-Forschungsprojekt zur vierteljährlichen Statistik offener Stellen im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Arbeit und Soziales. Endbericht. Nürnberg, 80 p.