Coping with Unemployment in the Course of Time (Unemployed Panel 1978-1982)

Employment and unemployment in the course of time. Problems of
reintegration in work and contact with the employment office.
Psycho-social problems of unemployment.

This is a four-wave panel.

Topics: 1st wave: The first wave of this investigation is at the same
time the survey described under ZA Study No. 1083.

2nd wave: current employment status and changes since last survey;
detailed chronological recording of times of employment or unemployment
since last survey; agency arranging and frequency of temporary
employment; re-employment with the same employer; type of activity
during this interruption; employment from funds of a job creation
measure; participation in course or retraining; successful conclusion
and financial support of the course; improvement in occupational
chances through retraining participation; reasons for non-participation
(scale); self-assessment of current condition of health; illnesses and
complaints; utilization of advice centers and medical treatment;
psychological self-characterization of self-confidence and work
orientation (scales); judgement on economic situation of the Federal
Republic and one´s own economic situation; characterization of activity
sought; income ideas; ideas about distance to place of work; list of
circumstances that would be accepted in order to find work; type and
extent of support received; intensity and evaluation of contact with
the employment office; judgement on the case worker in the employment
office in general and relative to the case of respondent (scale);
number of jobs offered by the employment office; experiences with job
offers obtained by the employment office as already filled or
rejections received; independent search for work; number of
applications; conversations with job counselor and case worker about
further education and retraining; content characterization of
counseling conversations (scale); attitude to unemployment and search
for work (scale); detailed characterization of last occupational
activity before respondent became unemployed; characterization of
company; the route to work; information on dismissal; reason for
dismissal; reduction in earning capacity; number of children under 14
years; children not of school-age; membership in a trade union;
residential status; city size.

3rd wave: as so-called panel maintenance a brief questionnaire was
sent to the respondent. In this mail survey (November 1980) the
following questions were posed: current employment status; moving
frequency; change of place of residence and distance of moving; reason
for moving.

With respondents who had found employment in the meantime the
following additional questions were posed: characterization of current
occupational activity and information on training prerequisites as well
as working hours and opportunity of doing overtime; characteristics of
the job; means of transport and length of route to work;
characterization of company; mediation by employment office; compromise
solution or employment corresponding to expectations; comparison of
current and previous job; usability of knowledge from earlier
employment.

Demography: age; sex; marital status; number of children; babies;
school education; vocational training; employment; household income;
size of household; composition of household; respondent is head of
household; division of household work; characteristics of head of
household; city size; agricultural operation as second occupation;
moves recently, move due to the new job and distance from old place of
residence to new.

4th wave: assessment of economic situation; times of employment or
unemployment from 1978 to 1981; assessment of occupational consequences
of personal unemployment; reason for last unemployment; number of jobs
offered by the employment office; one´s own initiative in the search
for work; help taken advantage of for occupational reintegration;
satisfaction with employment office and case worker; description of
current employment situation; interest in regaining employment;
part-time or full-time position; assessment whether it will be possible
to obtain employment again in the next five years; decision for a
specific activity or specific occupation; ideas on income; occupational
mobility; reasonable difficulties or those one would accept in order to
regain employment; current registration with the employment office as
unemployed; reasons for not finding a suitable position (scale);
sources of income for livelihood; assessment of condition of health;
reduction in earning capacity; illnesses and complaints in the last
three months; psychological self-characterization of self-confidence
and work orientation (scales); moving frequency.

To those who in the meantime had found work the following questions
were also posed: success of mediation by the employment office;
temporary or permanent employment; detailed characterization of current
activity and relationship to occupation learned; hours worked each week
and overtime; length of route to work; assessment of security of one´s
job.

Those who had not yet found work characterized their last job
according to the same criteria.