Abstract

This article presents the potential of georeferenced data for labor market research. We reviewdevelopments in the literature and highlight areas that can benefit from applications ofgeoreferenced data. Moreover, we share our experiences in geocoding administrative employmentdata, which include wage and socioeconomic information of almost the entire Germanworkforce between 2000 and 2017. To make the data easily accessible for research, we create1-square-kilometer grid cells aggregating a rich set of labor market characteristics andsociodemographics of unprecedented spatial precision. These unique data provide detailedinsight into inner-city distributions for all German cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants.Complemented by extensive map material for the other cities in the online appendix,we describe Berlin and Munich in greater detail. The generated maps show that the useof small-scale geodata reveals substantial differences in various labor market aspects withinand across cities.