DOCUMENT RESUME ED 099 599 CE 002 693 TITLE A Study to Test the Feasibility ofDetermiving Whether Classified Want Ads in Daily Newspapers Are an Accurate Reflectionof Local Labor Markets and of Significant Use to Employers and Job Seekers.Final Report. INSTITUTION Olympus Research Corp., Salt Lake City, Utah. SPONS AGENCY manpower Administration (DOL),.Washington, D.C. Office of Research and Development. PUB DATE 15 Jul 73 NOTE 417p. EDRS PRICE MF-$0.75 HC-$19.80 PLUS POSTAGE DESCRIPTORS Employers; *Feasibility Studies; *Job Applicants; *Labor Market; *Newspapers; *Publicize; Research Methodology; Surveys IDENTIFIERS *Classified Want Ads ABSTRACT The report summarizes findings of adetailed study to test the feasibility of determiningwhether want ads in daily newspapers are (1) an accuratereflection of local labor markets and (2) of significant use to employers andjob seekers. The study found that want ads are a limited source ofinformation about local labor markets. They are of some use to privateemployment agencies but were of use to only a small percentage ofthe total number of employers and job seekers in the two cities. Part Oneintroduces the purpose and other factors of the study andpresents a synthesis of information emanating from all aspects of thestudy. Part Two describes six major investigations and themethodology used for analyzing and coding ads. Three majorsub-studies were carried out: (1) the content study, an in-depthanalysis of the contents of all ads;(2) an overview, an analysis ofoccupations, industries, advertisers, and location of jobs; and (3)the volume study (charting the number of ads, measurement of spaceinches, and a count of ads). Chapters also are devoted to: the user survey;the employer survey; and the job-seeker survey. Allresearch instruments are appended. Supportive data are tabulated. (NH) 4 f A Study to Test the Feasibility of Dkermining Whether Classified Want Ads in Daily Newspapers Are an Accurate Reflection of Local Labor Markets and ofSignificantALt MEmployers and Job Seekeis veinal Report July 15, 1973 OFNEALTN, U SDEPARTMENT&WELFAREOF EDUCATIONINSTITUTE NATIONil REPRO EDUCATIONBEEN NAS FROM DOCUMENTI ASRECEIVE°OR iGtN 11-0S VCACIt GANG OPtNIONS DRORGANIZATIONOR DUCE I VREPRE THEPERbONilPOINTS OTCSSARit OG NI INC, NOTNEL INSTITUTE ED DO NATIONALPOLIO ST AT FICIAL OR SENT OF POSITION EDUCATION Olympus Research Corporation 955 East Ninth South Salt Lake City, Utah k-S Prepared fo'r the Office of Research and Development, Manpower Administration, <7) U.S. Department of Labor, under grant no, 21-11-73-28, 2 6 CONTENTS Foreword page 1 Part IIntroduction Summary of Findings Chapter 1 Introduction 1-1 Purpose of the Study 1-5 , Study Areas %. 1-5 Newspapers to Be Studied 1-6 Period of Study 1-10. Study Design 1-10 Want-Ad Content Study 1-10 Five-Year Overview 1-11 The Volume Study 1- 13 The User Study 1-14 Employer Survey 1-15 job Seeker Survey 1-15 Problems in Conducting the Want-Ad Study 1-16 Raw Materials 1-17 Coding Problems 1-18 Clerical Wotrk Load 1-20 Summary 1 -20 Chapter-2 Analysis, Summary, and Conclusions2-1 Use of Want Ads by Private Employment Agencies 2-2 Private. Agency Policy Concerning Want Ads 2-3 Private.Agencies and Labor Market Information 244 Extent of Agency Advertising in San Francisco and Salt Lake City 2-7 . Effect of Newspaper Policyon Composition of Want-Ad Sections 2-10 Sensitivity of Agency Ads to Unemployment Rates 2-1'1 Infomration about Jobs Listed byAgencies 2-12 Summary,2-14 Want Ads as a Reflection of Local Labor_ Markets 2-15 Loca.tion of Jobs 2-16 Industrial Distribution of Want-Ad Jobs 2-17 Occupational Distribution of Want-Ad Jobs 2-20 Sensitivity of Want Ads to Unemployment Rates 2-22 Occupational Trends 2-24 Information Not Contained in Want Ads 2-27 Summary 2-28 Use of Want Ads to Employers2-30 Employer Survey 2-30 User Study 2-31 Sumnivaryp2-39 Use of Want Ads to Job Seekers 2-41 ° "Job Seeker TransaCtions through Want. Ads ,2-41 Job Seeker Opinions of Want Ads 2-42 Reasons for Positive and Negative OpiniOns 2-43 Want Ads and the Law 2-45- . Summary2-49 Summary and Conclusions 2-50 Private Employment Agency Advertising 2-51 Information Contained in Want Ads 2-52 Want-Ad Users 2-53 Ilse of Want Ads to Employers 2-54 61 Use of Want Ads to Job Seekers 2-55 Part II 2-57 iv. 4 List of Tables 2-1 Extent of Private Agency Want -Ad Advertising in San Franciscoand Salt 0 Lake City 2-9 2-2 ,Comparison of Occupational Distribution of JobsAdvertised in Wnat. Ads by Private Agencies with Those.Advertised byEmployers -- Both Papers Combined 2-10 2-3 Volume of Private Employment Agency Ads (by Percentageof Total Numbers of Ads and Percentage of Total Inches) -- Salt Lake Tr.ibupe 2-11 2 -4 Quarterly Correlation of Agency Wnat-Ad Variables withUnemployment Rates -- San Francisco2-i2 2-5 Comparison of Job Information Contained in Agency andEmployer Ads 2-13 )-6 Number of Job Titles and Location of Jobs -- San Franciscoand Salt Lake City 2-17 2-7 Industrial Distribution ofWant Ads in San Francisco and Salt Lake City Compared to the Labor Markets 2-19 2-S Overrepresentation of Sales Jobs -- Both Cities 2-20 2-9 Underrepresentation of Blue-Collar Jobs Both Cities 2-21 2-10Correlation of Want-Ad Variables with UnemploymentRates 2-23 2-11 Volume of Want-Ad Joh Titles by SelectedOccupational Categories, San Francisco and Salt Lake City 2-25 .2-12 Percentage of Information Not Contained in WantAds -- San Francisco and Salt Lake City2-28 Chart 2.1 Comparison of the Percentage of Wanc-Ad SpaceUsed by Private Agency and "Bordered Ads" (Combined) andEmployer Ads from the San Francisco Chronicle-Examiner, 1968-72 2 -S 5 FOREWORD ''This report summarizes the findings of a study conducted by Olympus Research Corporation (ORC) under contract to the U.S. Department ofLabor's Manpower Administration to test the feasibility of determining whether classi- fied imint ads in aaily newspapers are (1)- an accurate reflection of local labor markets and (2) of significant use to employers and job seekers. The report is organized into two parts. Part I contains an introductory chapter and a chapter synthesizing iniormation emanating from all aspects of ' the study Part II contains detailed descriptions of each of the major invest- igations conducted by ORC and a description of the methodology used for analyzing and coding ads . The methodology portion (Chapter 3) describes the r methods ORC used to conduct three substudies dealing specifically with the analysisof want ads themselves: (1) the content study (Chapter 4), (2) the five-year overview (Chapter 5), and (3) the volume study (Chapter 6).Method- ologies used in carrying out surveys conductedby ORC are described in the chapters devoted to each survey: (1) the user survey (Chapter 7), (2) the employer survey (Chapter 8),.and (3) the job-seeker survey(Chapter 9). All research instruments used in the study are contained in theAppendix. 1 2 Mrs. Miriam Johnson served as ORC's project supervisor and John.Walsh a-; t-he project director. Other ORC staa who participated in the project are listed below in alphabetical. order: Helga Bailey Ceor:Aia Mertz Jay C.. Fantz E laine Saliba Lloyd L. Callardo Amy Silvers Halen Henning , Patricia Sollenberg James T. Langlois Eligio Vella Garth Mangum J oan. Lea Walsh INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF FINDINGS a. 6 OA ,9 O r Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION The classified "help wanted" sectionsof daily newspapers played a major role in forging federal manpowerpolicy in the early 1960s. The underlying assumption behind.eafly federallysponsored manpower programs was that struc- tural imbalances in, the labor market was amajor cause of unemployment. -Accord- ing to this theory',. automationand technological change had causedaldecrease "obsolete" in tae demand for unskilledlaborers, a displacement of workers with skills, and an increase in thedemand for skilled,workers in "new"occupations. fit The result was thousands of"square pegs" (unemployed workers) who could not P training and into 'found holes" (jobs). Thus what was' needed was a massive retraining program to prepare theunewloyed and underemployed to qualifyfor supporting evidence for the struc- "today's jobs." One of4the major pieces of tural theory of uhemploythent wasthe classified want-ad sections ofmajor newspapers. In city after city, regardlessof relatively high unemployment rites," the Sunday editions of newspaperscarried'as many as eight to ten pages of help wanted ads, many of themlisting job titles that did ndt evenexist 14 .one to five yearspreviously. Surely, if classified want-adsections are an accuratereflection of 1960s tended to local labor markets, thecondition they revealed in the early 1-1 I 1O MAILABLE IIESTCOPY 1-2 svpport the structuralists.II o this day, data emanating from classified want-ad sections are used to ieselfy training-in occupations "for which there are reasonable expectations of employment" under the Manpower Development and Training Act (RDTA). The tendency hasbeen, both on the part of the structuralists . of the early 1960s and many present day mahHower planners, take for granted Ole validity o,f jobs listed in. classified want-ad sections. Until now, however, no research t1is been* conducted to "go behind" the , want ads -- to determine if possible how many actual jobs are listed in the want, -"\ ads (after eliminating all dtiplication), how manS, transactions result from these listings, in what occupations and i stries they occurs or what want ads reveal (if anything) about occupational trends specific locations Of jobs, wages, fringe benefits, etc. The'question t1er6fore as to whe.ther classified want-ad sections. are indeed an accurate reflection of local labor markets hds not been answered: In fact, whether it iS possible to determine.whether want ads are a useful .source of labor market information is still op tito question.