Job Vacancy Survey Methodology

Fourth Quarter 2019

Sample Design

Information on job vacancies for the fourth quarter 2019 Minnesota Job Vacancy Survey comes from a survey of 10,323 Minnesota firms. Surveyed employers were randomly selected from Minnesota's Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW). These firms were selected from the universe of firms that were doing business in Minnesota during fourth quarter 2018. Firms were selected based on a sampling procedure that stratified by Economic Development Region, firm size (one to nine employees; 10 to 49 employees; 50 to 249 employees; and 250 employees or more), and 20 industrial sectors.

Twenty major industrial sectors, defined by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), are represented in the survey sample as shown in the table below:

NAICS INDUSTRY	INDUSTRY DESCRIPTION
Agriculture	Firms engaged in growing crops, raising animals, harvesting timber, and harvesting fish and other animals from a farm, ranch, or their natural habitats.
Mining	Firms that extract naturally occurring mineral solids, such as coal and ores; liquid minerals, such as crude petroleum; and gasses, such as natural gas.
Utilities	Firms engaged in the provision of the following utility services: electric power, natural gas, steam supply, water supply, and sewage removal.
Construction	Firms engaged in the construction of buildings and other structures, heavy construction, additions, alterations, reconstruction, installations, and maintenance and repairs.
Manufacturing	Firms engaged in the mechanical, physical, or chemical transformation of materials, substances, or components into new products.
Wholesale Trade	Firms engaged in wholesale merchandising, generally without transformation, and rendering services incidental to the sale of merchandise.
Retail Trade	Firms engaged in retailing merchandise, generally without transformation, and rendering services incidental to the sale of merchandise.
Transportation and Warehousing	Firms engaged in the transportation of passengers and cargo, warehousing and storage for goods, scenic and sightseeing transportation, and support activities related to modes of transportation.
Information	Firms engaged in the production, processing and distribution of information and cultural products.
Finance and Insurance	Firms engaged in financial transactions (including the creation, liquidation, or change in ownership of financial assets) and/or facilitating financial transactions.
Real Estate	Firms engaged in renting, leasing, or otherwise allowing for the use of tangible or intangible assets, and establishments providing related service.
Technical Services	Firms specializing in performing professional, scientific, and technical activities for others.
Management	Firms who hold the securities of companies and enterprises for the purpose of controlling interest or influencing management decisions or who administer, oversee, and manage the company in a strategic, organizational, or decision-making role.
Administrative and Support	Firms providing routine support activities for the day-to-day operations of other organizations.
Educational Services	Firms providing instruction and training on a wide variety of subjects.
Healthcare	Firms providing healthcare and social assistance to individuals.
Arts and Entertainment	Firms engaged in providing services to meet the varied cultural, entertainment, and recreational interests of their patrons.
Accommodation	Firms providing customers with lodging and/or preparation of meals, snacks and beverages for immediate consumption.
Other Services	Firms engaged in providing services not specifically provided for elsewhere in the classification system.
Public Administration	Federal, state and/or local agencies that administer, oversee, and manage public programs and have executive, legislative, or judicial authority over other institutions in a given area.

Source: North American Industry Classification System, United States. NAICS Web page: www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/.

Firms excluded from the sampling process included those in private households and personnel service industries and those firms with no employees.

Survey Instrument, Procedure and Results

Contact information, firm size, and industry classification for firms were drawn from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data maintained by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). Additional contact information was obtained through telephone calls and websites.

About half of employers were sent letters and survey questionnaires during the quarter and asked to supply information on current job vacancies including rates of pay, education and experience requirements, and benefits. Firms without job vacancies were also asked to return the survey reporting “no vacancies”. Additional survey mailings and follow-up telephone calls were used to solicit survey responses. Data was collected by staff directly from firm websites for about 4,202 firms in the sample. These tended to be the larger firms.

Following a review of the survey results and coding to an occupational (SOC) category (see section on SOC coding below), the data were scaled to produce estimates representative of Minnesota's labor market by Economic Development Region. The scaling process takes account of the distribution of job vacancies and overall employment by industry and size in the respondent group and in the universe of regional employers.

Breaks in Series and Re-estimation Processes

In second quarter 2005, we changed the regional stratification from Planning Regions to Economic Development Regions (EDR). Since the estimation method did not change and Planning Region level data are still produced, comparisons to previous rounds remain valid.

Starting with the second quarter of 2007 survey round, we made some slight adjustments to the classification of the “very small” and “small” size classes. The “very small” size class was altered to include companies with one to nine employees, where before it included only employers with one to four employees. The “small” size class was adjusted to include only those companies with 10 to 49 employees. This change was made to better group smaller companies that have similar hiring practices. This change does produce a break in the time series for these size classifications.

Due to changes in methodology made for the fourth quarter of the 2001 survey round, comparisons of estimated job vacancies to the fourth quarter of 2000 and second quarter of 2001 rounds should be made with caution. In order to make any comparisons between all rounds of the survey, job vacancy totals from fourth quarter 2000 and second quarter 2001 were re-estimated. Comparisons of job vacancy totals in the Minnesota Job Vacancy Survey report use the re-estimated job vacancy totals and not the estimated job vacancies reported in the fourth quarter of 2000 and second quarter 2001 Minnesota Job Vacancy Survey reports.

Finally, in fourth quarter 2012 we made changes to the estimation process in response to an analysis conducted by the Minneapolis Federal Reserve in 2011 which showed that wage estimates probably understate wage offers in the population of job vacancies. The study found that our method of collecting some job vacancies on-line leads to a systematic underreporting of wages. This is due to the fact that fewer than 20 percent of job postings available on-line report wage offers and the job vacancies collected on-line tend to be the higher skill/wage vacancies (on-line collection tends to be done for the largest firms including headquarters, colleges and universities and hospitals, for example). Their recommendation was to impute wage offers.

In response, we are now imputing wage offers for all reported vacancies where wages are missing. We are also imputing education, experience, and benefits offered where they are missing. At this time, all estimates have been revised for all years available on our website.

For more information, please call Cameron Macht in the Labor Market Information Office at 320-441-6596 or e-mail cameron.macht@state.mn.us

Matching Job Titles to the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) System

A total of 18,123 specific open-for-hire job titles were collected through the data collection process. Analysts reviewed these job titles and matched them to appropriate Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) titles. The 2010 SOC structure used in this study is a set of six-digit occupational codes that is currently being used by a number of different agencies, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of the Census, to classify occupations.

The 2010 SOC is a four-tiered structure with 840 detailed occupations that can be summarized into 461 broad occupations, 97 minor occupational groups, and 23 major occupational groups. For the purpose of this study, occupational information is presented at both the major occupational group and detailed occupational levels. Major occupational groups include the following:

MAJOR OCCUPATIONAL GROUP	SAMPLE OCCUPATIONS
Management	Educational Administrators, Marketing Managers, and Medical and Health Service Managers
Business and Financial Operations	Accountants, Financial Analysts, and Human Resource Specialists
Computer and Mathematical	Actuaries, Computer Programmers, and Computer Support Specialists
Architecture and Engineering	Architects, Chemical Engineers, and Drafters
Life, Physical and Social Science	Anthropologists, Chemists, and Geographers
Community and Social Service	Clergy, Health Educators, and Marriage and Family Therapists
Legal	Court Reporters, Lawyers, and Paralegals
Education, Training and Library	Librarians, Post-secondary Teachers, and Special Education Teachers
Art, Design, Entertainment Sports and Media	Coaches, Producers and Directors, and Radio Operators
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical	Dentists, Physicians, and Registered Nurses
Healthcare Support	Dental Assistants, Home Health Aides, and Pharmacy Aides
Protective Service	Animal Control Workers, Detectives, and Police Officers
Food Preparation and Serving Related	Cooks, Food Preparation Workers, and Waiters and Waitresses
Building, Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance	Housekeeping Cleaners, Janitors, and Pest Control Workers
Personal Care and Service	Child Care Workers, Hairdressers and Hairstylists, and Personal and Home Care Aides
Sales and Related	Cashiers, Insurance Sales Agents, and Retail Salespersons
Office and Administrative Support	Customer Service Representatives, Tellers, and Secretaries
Farming, Fishing and Forestry	Agricultural Inspectors, Animal Breeders, and Farmers
Construction and Extraction	Construction Laborers, Carpenters, and Electricians
Installation, Maintenance and Repair	Automotive Service Technicians and Mechanics, Motorcycle Mechanics, and Millwrights
Production	Butchers and Meat Cutters, Foundry Mold and Coremakers, and Machinists
Transportation and Material Moving	Airline Pilots, Bus Drivers, and Truck Drivers

In matching employer job titles to detailed occupational SOC codes and titles, analysts were careful to match vague titles, such as "Laborer", to appropriate codes by examining industry, wage, education and experience information provided by employers and when necessary looking back at on-line job postings for more detail. As a result of this process, job vacancies for this round are reported in a total of 619 occupational codes. Not all of these are published: Three firms must be represented in a cell to meet publication criteria.

Internships were coded to 910000 and apprenticeships to 920000, neither of which are SOC codes but simply a way to separate out internships and apprenticeships from other jobs. To be considered a job vacancy, these postings had to indicate that the position was paid.

For more information on the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) System, see the SOC Web page at: www.bls.gov/soc/.

Occupational Employment Estimates

The Local Employment and Wage Information System (LEWIS) provides occupational employment estimates for the state of Minnesota and its 13 Economic Development Regions. LEWIS uses the results of the annual Occupational Employment Survey (OES) in the calculation of employment within occupational groups and detailed occupations for user-defined areas such as the state, Greater Minnesota, and the Twin Cities seven-county metropolitan area.

Survey Response Rates

The overall survey response rate for this round is 74.9 percent (7,727 of 10,323). The following tables provide response rates by survey strata.

Survey Response Rates by Firm Size and Industry for Minnesota

Size of Firm	Sample	Received	Response Rate
Very Small (1 to 9 employees)	1,723	1,220	70.8%
Small (10 to 49 employees)	2,744	1,962	71.5%
Medium (50 to 249 employees)	4,392	3,268	74.4%
Large (250 or more employees)	1,464	1,270	86.7%
Industry	Sample	Received	Response Rate
Accommodation & Food Services	988	645	65.3%
Administrative and Support	595	415	69.7%
Agriculture	170	118	69.4%
Arts and Entertainment	290	207	71.4%
Construction	372	238	64.0%
Educational Services	481	430	89.4%
Finance and Insurance	376	296	78.7%
Healthcare & Social Assistance	1,806	1,385	76.7%
Information	250	185	74.0%
Management of Companies	248	189	76.2%
Manufacturing	922	644	69.8%
Mining	103	67	65.0%
Other Services	299	209	69.9%
Professional and Technical Services	592	430	72.6%
Public Administration	395	385	97.5%
Real Estate	201	149	74.1%
Retail Trade	1,149	914	79.5%
Transportation and Warehousing	496	357	72.0%
Utilities	171	154	90.1%
Wholesale Trade	413	303	73.4%
Total	10,323	7,727	74.9%