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

Demography: age; sex; marital status; school education; vocational training; household income; size of household; composition of household; respondent is head of household; characteristics of head of household. Second wave: as a so-called panel maintenance a short questionnaire was sent to the respondents. In this mail survey (November 1980) the following questions were posed: current employment status; moving frequency; change of residence and distance moved; cause of moving.

Third wave: The third wave is identical to the fourth wave of the unemployed survey as described in ZA Study No. 1362: assessment of the 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 employment office; one´s own initiative in the search for work; aid 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 employment can be resumed in the next five years; establishing a specific occupation or a specific profession; income concepts; occupational mobility; acceptable or reasonable problems in regaining employment; current registration with employment office as unemployed; reasons for not finding a suitable position (scale); sources of income to support cost of living; 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.

The following questions were also posed to those who in the meantime had found work: success of mediation by employment office; temporary or permanent employment; detailed characterization of current activity and relationship with occupation learned; hours worked each week and overtime; length of route to work; assessment of the security of one´s own job. Those who had not yet found work characterized their last job according to the same criteria.