The European Map of Job Flows

The European Map of Job Flows (EMJF) is a term used to denote a dataset of meso- and macro-level variables describing different aspect of labour mobility within national labour markets in Europe. In this paper, EMJF is centred on the notion of job “flows”, namely the changes in the level of employment at different breakdowns and levels of aggregation. EMJF is very rich in information content due to the wide variety of possible breakdown of the data and in this sense it is a “map” mostly in the virtual sense, namely, that it is not possible to visualise in the form of geographic maps all the wealth of available information. In terms of its value as a research product and tool, EMJF is mostly an intermediate product in the sense that it is a convenient means to organise the relevant information, which could subsequently be used for different analytical and research purposes. It provides both for cross-sections/snapshots of job flows at different point in time but also it allows their assessment and analysis over longer periods of time. In this sense, EMJF can be widely used for various types of labour-market analysis and research. EMJF’s visual components can also be a convenient tool for policy makers dealing with labour market policies at different level (regional, national or supra-national) in the decision-making process. Here we present a Compilation of a EMJF on the basis of firm-level data In this sense the job flows are built up on the basis of firm-level data for individual countries, following a common methodology. We adopt an approach of establishing such a EMJF on the basis of the AMADEUS dataset developed by the consultancy Bureau van Dijk. The dataset in its most extended version contains balance sheet data and ownership data for almost 14 million firms from 43 different European countries (September 2009 update). For many EU countries the dataset has in principle access to the entire universe of firms which have to report a balance sheet. In terms of countries, the geographic coverage of AMADEUS encompasses information for all the 27 members of the European Union (albeit with different qualities in terms of national coverage) as well as other 16 European countries that complete the geographical and political definition of the continent. Another interesting feature of the database is given by the detailed definition of a firm's location, with data available on the region (NUTS2) and the city in which the firm operates. This project deliverable presents the main results from the final stage of MICRO-DYN work on the EMJF. It discusses the approach to building the EMJF on the basis of AMADEUS data and illustrates the analytical potential of the EMJF as a research tool with a range of Europe-wide analytical exercises. Probably the most important outcome of this research effort is the demonstrated capability to perform meta-analysis at the European level of important labour market characteristics on the basis of firm-level data.