Employment Surveys 2012 and 2018 and a Follow-up Survey to the 2018 Employment Survey - Personality Traits and Employment
The BIBB/BAuA Employment Surveys 2012 and 2018 are telephone surveys of 20,000 gainfully employed persons, jointly carried out by the German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) and the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA). The Surveys are representative surveys among employed persons aged 15 and over with paid employment of at least ten hours per week in Germany.
The focus of the surveys is on the one hand on employment and the workplace at the time of the survey, e.g. job tasks performed and required knowledge (job-related cross-sectional part), and on information about the job holders, e.g. their job satisfaction, workload or health complaints. On the other hand, the survey looks into the relationship between education and employment (school education, vocational and advanced training, professional career, employment that is adequate to the vocational training, career changes, applicability of professional qualifications, etc.).
The Employment Surveys are carried out in intervals of six years. The 2018 survey is the seventh survey of its kind. Earlier surveys were realized by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) in cooperation with the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA, data collections 2006, 2012) and the Institute for Employment Research (IAB, data collections 1979, 1985/86, 1991/92, 1998/99), respectively.
The 2018 survey is to a large extent comparable with the data collected in 2012 and 2006. The questionnaire program is very similar and the survey mode has also remained the same (CATI).
The data from the BIBB-follow-up survey "Personality Traits and Employment" was collected as part of the project "Occupations in Germany: Social Perception and Personality Characteristics" as a follow-up survey to the 2018 BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey. 8.010 core employed persons in Germany were asked about their personality traits and took part in a vocabulary test. The data can generally only be evaluated in conjunction with the Scientific Use File (SUF) from the 2018 BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey. The data from both surveys can be combined for the core employed persons from the follow-up survey via the interview number (intnr).
For more information about the data, see the files in the right box under "Downloads".
The Scientific-Use-File of the 2012 and 2018, the Follow-up survey and all earlier surveys can be accessed via GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. The data can be ordered at
Data access to weakly anonymized variables (full texts, smaller regional units, occupational codes at the 3-/4-/5-digit level) is organized via remote data access and/or through separate BIBB-FDZ workplaces for guest researchers. If you are interested in working with the data please select the data access or contact button.
Bibliographic Citation Employment Surveys
Hall, Anja; Siefer, Anke; Tiemann, Michael (2020): BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey of the Working Population on Qualification and Working Conditions in Germany 2012. SUF_6.0; Research Data Center at BIBB (ed.); GESIS Cologne (data access); Bonn: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training. doi:10.7803/501.12.1.1.60
Hall, Anja; Hünefeld, Lena; Rohrbach-Schmidt, Daniela (2020): BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey of the Working Population on Qualification and Working Conditions in Germany 2018. SUF_1.0; Research Data Center at BIBB (ed.); GESIS Cologne (data access); Bonn: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training. doi:10.7803/501.18.1.1.10
Rohrbach-Schmidt, Daniela; Ebner, Christian (2020): Personality Traits and Employment – BIBBFollow-up Survey to the 2018 BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey. SUF_1.0; Research Data Center at BIBB (ed.); GESIS Cologne (data access); Bonn: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training. doi:10.7803/501.18.2.1.10