Redesigning the German job vacancy survey

Abstract

"Information about job vacancies in Germany is provided by the Federal Employment Agency, which collects reported job openings from business units. They cover less than 50% of all vacancies, as many businesses prefer not to cooperate with the Agency. Therefore, the Institute for Employment Research conducts a yearly job vacancy mail survey to estimate the total number of vacancies. Response rates have dramatically declined over the years. In 2006, less than 20% of the sampled units participated in the survey. We tried to gather information about the potential nonresponse bias by varying the length of the questionnaire. During the latest wave of the survey with the usual questionnaire of eight pages in length, we conducted an additional survey with a one-page questionnaire. Though this one-pager resulted in a higher response rate, the estimates from the different surveys did not differ significantly. We conclude that nonresponse due to higher response burden does not necessarily lead to biased estimates." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Kiesl, H. & Rässler, S. (2007): Redesigning the German job vacancy survey. Assessing the impact of high nonresponse rates. In: American Statistical Association (Hrsg.) (2007): Third International Conference on Establishment Surveys (CD-ROM-Proceedings), p. 1301-1304.