Job Mobilities and Family Lives in Europe (First Wave)

Spread and relevance of spatial mobility. The situation of mobile
people.

A: Identification of Job-Mobility: Employment status; paid work in the
past; end of last job; daily travel time to work; variation due to
several jobs; one hour commute at least 12 days per month; same
duration for the way home; duration of commute to get from job back
home; number of commutes per week; overnighters were asked: number of
job-related overnights per year; worked parts of the year away from
home; at least 60 overnights away from home; recent relocators were
asked: ever moved at least 50 km; number of movements; move for
job-related reasons.

Long-distance relationships: Stable relationship; common household
with partner, employment status of partner, common household if jobs
would allow it, duration of travel between the two residences.

Job-Mobility of the partner: Daily travel time from home to work,
number of commutes per week, job-related overnights in the last 12
months, number of job-related overnights per year, per month and per
week, number of overnight days and weeks in a row, number of overnight
trips per month, job-related move since 2004 for over 50 km.

B) Origin and Place 1. Life history: Age (year of birth); country of
birth; year and age of move to survey-country; ever lived one year or
longer outside the country; stays abroad for one year or longer;
citizenship (multiple answer); same country of origin as respondent`s
parents; country of origin of respondent`s father and mother (migration
background); year and age of move out from parental home; first home
rent or own; distance to parental home at least 50 km; year of this
relocation and up to 15 additional relocations; job-related reason for
moving; moving across national border.

2. Place of living: Current place of living (NUTS); number of
residences; number of places of living; own or rent own dwelling;
attachment to own four walls and to the city of residence (scalometer);
attachment to the region (only in Belgium and Spain); attachment to
one`s country, to the country of birth, and to Europe; distance to
friends; (only in Switzerland: frequency of contact with good friends,
interaction in circle of friends).

C) Family life 1. Partnership: Year and month of beginning of the
relationship; year of marriage; first marriage; marital status;
partner: year of birth; partner`s citizenship; highest educational
level; employment status; more than one job; current occupation (only
in France and Germany); number of work hours per week; main job;
fixed-term or open-ended work contract; freedom of choosing work hours;
number of partnerships; number of partnerships with cohabitation.

2. Children, childcare, grandchildren, household and parents: Number of
children; number of step, foster or adopted children, all children
living in the household; year of birth of children, own children, step
children, adopted children, foster children, living children belonging
to the household, reason for not living in the household, frequency of
contact with these children; respondent is currently on maternal or
parental leave; paid nanny or day mother for childcare; frequency of
paid care; child is attending kindergarten or a day nursery; time of
returning from school (hour and minute); grandparents taking care of
children and frequency of care; grandparents are not alive anymore;
child care by relatives or friends and frequency of care; intention to
have an additional child; number of grandchildren; importance of
job-related reasons for not having children; reasons for not having
children; intention to have a child within the next 3 years; parents,
grandparents and parents in law live within short distance.

3. Quality of partnership, division of labour and housework: Leisure
activities together with the partner; necessity of daily face-to-face
contact for a good partnership; visiting friends together with the
partner; partner who cares for the children and handles housework; paid
support for household.

D) Work I: Job biography: Year of first job; number of different
employers in job career; for former jobs was asked: daily commuting at
least 1 hour one way; part of the week and part of the year away from
home; long business trips; long distance relocation; moving to another
country; highest educational level of respondent; enrolled in
university or professional training.

2. Current occupational situation: working for pay: Respondents on
maternal leave were asked: more than one job; number of different jobs;
work hours per week; one main job or two (several) equal jobs;
characteristics of main job: employment or self-employment status; year
of and age at start of job; private or public sector; branch of
activity; supervisor-function; supervised by other people; fixed-term
or open-ended contract; contract length; frequency of working at home;
freedom of deciding beginning and end of work day; company has more
than one location; distribution of this location (same region,
national, spread over Europe, world-wide); transfer offer to a
different location within the company; acceptance of the transfer.

3. Current occupational situation of respondents not working for pay:
engagement; year of starting the new job.

E) Job-Mobility 1. Daily long-distance commuters: Commuting is
related to first or second job; distance between home and workplace;
means of transportation (number and mode); start of commuting (year and
month).

Overnighters: Travel related to first or second job; overnight days
and weeks in a row; means and frequency of communication with partner;
informed well ahead of time about time schedule; ability to arrange
length and frequency of stay; changing worksites or same workplace;
accommodation near the workplace.

Shuttlers: Kind of accommodation; duration of travel from main
household to accommodation; means of transportation; start of
overnighting (year and month).

Vari-Mobiles: Level of trips (regional, national, European or
worldwide); kind of accommodation; direct travel from one work place to
the other work place; frequency of partner`s and child`s visits at the
different working places; start of frequently travelling (year and
month).

Long-distance relationships: Related to first or second job; living
together with partner in one household; year and month of household
separation; distance between the households; partner`s household in the
same country; country of partner`s household; means and frequency of
communication with the partner; who visits whom most often; number and
means of transportation.

Recent relocators: Concerning the last job-related move at least 50 km
away: Move because of current, former job, first or second job; ever
lived in the same region before; friends or relatives in the new place
before movement; importance of maintaining relationships at the
previous location; simultaneous move of partner; direct or later move
of partner at that time; direct or later move of the family; duration
until the partner or the family came; rented or owned last home; last
home: sold, used or rented out, town of last home (NUTS); crossed a
language barrier (only in Switzerland and Belgium); emigration country;
immigration country; move involved changing employers; return from
assignment; assignment; initial plan to stay; plans to return; date of
planned return (year and month).

Circumstances of job-mobility: Persons who encouraged and those who
discouraged mobility decision; mobility decision was very difficult;
free mobility decision; respondent would make mobility decision again;
duration of mobility was foreseeable; plans to reduce mobility;
perceived evaluation of mobility by others and oneself; mobility as
temporary solution or permanent way of life; evaluation of job-related
mobility as opportunity.

Consequences of job-mobility: advantages of job-related mobility (only
chance for both partners or for the respondent to work, career
opportunities, earn more money, children stay in familiar environment,
keep house, stay close to friends and relatives, fun, independence,
more intensive time with partner, nice area); disadvantages (time
pressure, often exhausted, not feeling at home anywhere, not enough
engagement in housework, less efficient at work, neglecting contacts to
people, high financial costs, too little time for the partner and the
children, less leisure time, difficult to build up a partnership);
evaluation of support by employer; company support (means of
communication for private use, refunding of travel costs, costs for
extra rent and moving, help with job finding for the partner or to find
a kindergarten as well as school for the children, help with managing
formal procedures); evaluation of potential further support for
instance tax incentives or support from partner; development of good
strategies to manage own mobile way of life and to integrate into the
new location; related travelling as a waste of time.

F) Work II: Readiness to become job-mobile: Desire for a job;
willingness to move to another region, a foreign country, to long
distance trips, to weekend commute, to go frequently on business trips;
job refusal in the past because of mobility.

G) Individual characteristics: Attitudes regarding job, job-mobility
and family: hard to find an equivalent job in the case of unemployment;
difficulty to find a decent job; worried not to have enough business or
to lose one`s job; mobility is necessary for career; employers can
expect mobility; more successful career with fewer other
responsibilities; gender role: men as main provider and women taking
care of home and family; self-characterization: ability to manage
problems, good in reading maps and finding one`s way, future or past
orientation (advantages of the new place or giving up one´s current
life; self-assessment as family-oriented or career-oriented);
job-interruption for more than one year because of taking care for
children or family members and reduction of work hours for this reasons
(respondent and partner); time of reduction; children and job career;
postponing having more children.

Health, stress and satisfaction: Self-assessment of health; mental
state: Frequency of feeling pressed for time, tired and exhausted, full
of energy, depressed, well-balanced, lonesome, stressed because of too
many duties, work situation, conflicts with partner, worries concerning
children; degree of stress in the last three months (scalometer);
satisfaction with: the availability of public transport in the region,
own financial situation, partnership, relationship to children, job
situation; satisfaction with life (scalometer).

Demography: Sex of respondent; language skills; availability of
laptop, web access, car or motorcycle, motorway, station with regional
trains, station with high speed trains and airport; frequency of use of
public transport; net household income; partner who contributes most to
household income.

Additionally coded was: Weighting factors; Indicators: Job-mobility,
education (ISCED), occupation (ISCO 88), job prestige (SIOPS, ISEI),
Region (NUTS, LAU); Bundesland (German Region, NUTS-code, LAU (Local
Administrative Unit); highest educational level of partner and of
respondent; regrouped regions into 8 zones (France), Big region of
Switzerland, size of municipality; type of municipality (Switzerland);
region, educational level; current place of living or last home.