Job Vacancy Measurement

Myron L. Joseph

Journal of Human Resources, 1966, vol. 1, issue 2, 59-80

Abstract: U. S. data on employment have lacked crucial information on the demand for labor. The only available data have been those collected by the National Bureau of Economic Research on help-wanted advertising, and those from the Bureau of Employment Security on job applicants. Recently, however, the Department of Labor has launched a program to develop more information on job vacancies, based on two important feasibility studies. Yet there has still not been enough analytical work done to enable proper interpretation of the level or pattern of job vacancies. At the present time there are no grounds for assuming that job vacancies are equivalent to the excess demand for labor, although such data can be used to measure market maladjustment. The paper also raises several conceptual problems concerning job vacancies. Given this situation, the article concludes that, although price and wage stability is a complex function of total flow and duration of un-employment, as well as of the total flow and duration of vacancies, we do not know what patterns are consistent with stability. Haste to use vacancy data means the sacrifice of careful research on the significance of such data.

Date: 1966
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/144934
A subscription is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:1:y:1966:i:2:p:59-80

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Human Resources from University of Wisconsin Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().