A SURVEY OF EMPLOYER SURVEYS: WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT LABOR MARKETS FROM TALKING WITH BOSSES.

Many research have been conducted on occupational attainment by sociologists. This has helped to increase our understanding of the supply, job seeker or holder, side of the labor market. Recent concerns with job matching and labor market transactions, that is, with job assignment, have focused attention on the need to address the demand side as well. Such a shift in theoretical and substantive focus requires some shift in research methodology and data. This paper argues that the continued development of employer surveys can add immeasurably to research on job matching. The purpose here is to examine what we have learned about labor markets from employer surveys and to argue for further efforts to gather data from the demand side. The development of employer surveys is discussed, some of the empirical findings and generalizations that have emerged from these studies that may not have been discovered using more conventional procedures are described, and research directions using employer surveys are suggested.