In order to provide research data, the IAB draws on the register data generated during the administrative process, which is collated in the data warehouse of the Federal Employment Agency’s statistics department. This includes information on the services provided under labour market policy, on measures such as job-counselling and preparation, and on employment that is above the earnings threshold for social insurance contributions At the IAB, these data are adapted to research requirements and developed into research data.
In addition, data from quantitative (panel) surveys and qualitative interviews on employers, individuals, households, and job centres are used. Based on data protection regulations, a wide range of data sources such as company and personal data can be linked by record linkage methods. The data products generated in this way are made available internally for research and political consulting, processed further and made accessible across various channels in anonymised form to the national and international research community via the Federal Employment Agency’s Research Data Centre at the Institute for Employment Research.
External data sources are also harnessed, most notably large, partly unstructured data (big data), which includes audio recordings of interviews taken with the permission of the interviewees.
In order to increase the quality and usability of the data products for research, quality assurance has a high priority throughout the entire data life cycle and is accompanied by research projects. To this end, the IAB develops and evaluates new procedures for data collection, correction, and analysis. Experimental methods and statistical models are used, as are increasingly, artificial intelligence methods.
The process for identifying and analysing the current skills requirements found in job vacancies published on the Federal Employment Agency’s job exchange will be refined in 2024 with the aim of creating a structured data set. Furthermore, the processes for regularly providing and updating geoinformation in the ‘integrated employment biographies’ dataset are in development, and the options for making this available to internal and external researchers in accordance with data protection legislation are being explored.
The IAB is also stepping up its efforts to generate rapidly available data on current, politically relevant issues. In 2024, it will use the Online Panel for Labour Market Research (OPAL) to examine the extent to which demand for the rapid provision of high-quality data can be satisfied in the context of establishing a permanent form of data collection at the IAB. The OPAL data will also be used to trial a new software add-on that uses click behaviour to identify inattentive survey participants and thus enhance data quality.
Activities
- Publications on the topic: Research Data and Methods
- Projects on the topic: Research Data and Methods
Departments
- Research Data Centre
- Statistical Methods
- Research Department Migration and International Labour Studies
- Research Department Panel Study Labour Market and Social Security
- Service Department Data and IT-Management
- Working Group Data Quality
- Working Group Qualitative Methods
