This article provides an overview of the IAB Establishment Panel, an annual survey of about 15,000 establishments across all industries and size classes that has been tracking labour demand and its determinants since 1993 (including East Germany since 1996). The survey samples establishments with employees subject to social security contributions disproportionately from the Federal Employment Agency’s Establishment File. Survey weights support inference to this population. The panel combines a core questionnaire on employment, business development, industrial relations, and vocational training with ad hoc modules on current topics. We also describe recent methodological developments, including the transition from paper-based interviewing to computer-assisted and partly self-administered modes and associated response patterns. The survey can be linked to administrative employee data (LIAB) and complementary employer–employee surveys (LPP), enabling matched analyses. Researchers can access the data via the Research Data Centre of the German Federal Employment Agency.
Bellmann et al. (Tue,) studied this question.