Advantages of Micro-Level Data

Advantages of Micro-Level Data

by: Tony Glover, Research Analyst and Douglas W. Leonard, Research Analyst

"Using micro-level Wage Records in concert with other administrative data allows us to determine turnover rates at levels of detail not attainable with survey methods."

The most commonly cited source of turnover data is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS).¹ The JOLTS survey is collected in concert with Enhanced Quarterly Unemployment Insurance (EQUI) data and represents approximately 16,000 employers of the 8 million nationwide. The EQUI database shows monthly employment as of the 12th of the month. Collected on a voluntary basis, the addendum questions included on the JOLTS survey track job openings, hires, quits, layoffs and discharges, and other separations. However, since the JOLTs survey collects employer-level data, it cannot provide information on where individual employees go following separation. Additionally, because of the low number of employers surveyed, data analysis is not available at the state or county levels.

As demonstrated in Table 1 of "Your Firm's Employee Turnover: How to Calculate it and How it Compares," Research & Planning (R&P) assigns a variable to the work status field associated with the employer-employee behavior for every record (now in excess of 11 million records) in our historical time series. With Wage Records alone we can calculate turnover at the employer level, and by combining Wage Records with EQUI data we can present data at the industry, ownership, firm size, state, and county levels as demonstrated by Table 2 in "Your Firm's Employee Turnover: How to Calculate it and How it Compares."

The Table presents turnover data for gender, age groups, and registered nurses in 1999. These are examples of combining other administrative databases with Wage Records to create additional aggregations to explore the dynamics of Wyoming’s Labor Market. For example, gender and age group turnover rates are calculated by combining the Wage Records database with Wyoming’s Driver’s License Database. R&P is currently combining data supplied by the Wyoming State Board of Nursing (WSBN) with our Wage Records data to examine various aspects of the relationship between registered nurses and our labor market, including turnover by origin of education.

Using Wage Records in conjunction with other administrative databases allows R&P to describe our labor market at varying levels of analysis (employer, occupation, county, workforce training programs, etc.). These analyses can be tailored to address specific market issues. For example, R&P can determine the gender of the exiting employees, how long they were employed, whether they were job training program participants, and several other pieces of information. Administrative databases such as Wage Records are generally collected for purposes of program operation and therefore offer an objective and comprehensive source of data.

¹U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2002, December 26). Job openings and labor turnover survey. Retrieved December 3, 2003.

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