Methodenbericht zur IAB-Befragung „Berufliche Weiterentwicklung“

"The IAB survey on ‘Career Development’ aims to gain insights into whether regular employees in Germany feel well-informed about their career opportunities and whether they have already taken steps towards a career change or are planning to do so. Of particular interest was whether the answers to these questions differed between otherwise similar individuals who had, or had not, used the “Career Guidance in Working Life” (BBiE) offered by Germany’s Federal Employment Agency (FEA). Introduced by the FEA in 2020, the BBiE is designed to help those seeking advice to realistically assess their career prospects and make informed decisions about their future career path. Its main target group is employees. The survey was therefore aimed at a) employees who, according to the Federal Employment Agency’s process data, had attended an initial counselling session as part of the BBiE provided by the FEA in 2024, and b) employees with similar observed characteristics who had not used the service (“statistical twins”). Only people aged between 25 and 59 were invited to participate in the survey. In total, 5.5 percent of those persons that were contacted completed the survey in full, and 4.9 percent consented to their responses being linked to the data held about them by the FEA. Among those who had received counselling through the BBiE, the response rate and the linkage consent rate were significantly higher at 7.0 percent and 6.2 percent respectively, compared with 4.1 percent and 3.6 percent for those who had not received counselling. The analyses show that participation in the survey correlates with certain characteristics. In particular, the following groups of people participated more frequently in the survey: women, people with German nationality, those with higher levels of education, older people, people in higher occupational levels, people with higher daily wages, and people who had spent more time in employment and less time receiving wage replacement benefits. Consequently, probit estimates were used to estimate the individual probabilities that invitees would take part in the survey or consent to their data being linked to information about them already held by the FEA. Individual weights were then calculated as the inverses of the estimated probabilities of participation. These weights should be used in descriptive analyses intended to draw conclusions about the population as a whole. Initial analyses of the survey data also reveal that more than half of the individuals who received counseling—based on the process data—stated that they were unfamiliar with the BBiE and had not attended an appointment there. Consequently, a comparison was made between the characteristics of those who were aware of the service and those who were not. This analysis shows, for instance, that individuals who were registered as job seekers at the time of counseling were particularly likely not to recall the session. Presumably, they perceived the vocational counseling appointment simply as a standard counseling meeting at their labor market office." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))