Wyoming New Hires Job Skills Survey 2015
What are New Hires? An Introduction to the Wyoming New Hires Job Skills Survey
by: Lisa Knapp, Senior Analyst, and Michael Moore, Editor
In fourth quarter 2009 (2009Q4), the Research & Planning (R&P) section of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services began administering a New Hires Job Skills Survey (New Hires Survey) in order to broaden and enhance the organization’s understanding of Wyoming’s labor market.
The New Hires Survey allows R&P to collect rich survey detail not previously available, such as occupation, rate of compensation, benefits, important job skills, employer satisfaction with a new hire’s skills, retention, and more. By linking New Hires Survey data to existing administrative databases, such as Unemployment Insurance Wage Records and Wyoming Department of Transportation driver’s license files, R&P is also able to identify new hires characteristics such as age and gender.
The New Hires Survey is sent to a random sample of hires by employers in the private sector and local government each quarter. Since the start of the survey, R&P has attained at least a 70% response rate per quarter. Based on these quarterly samples of hires, R&P estimates the characteristics of all new hires.
What are New Hires?
Hires are individuals who were hired by a new employer during a given reference quarter who were not employed by that employer during the prior quarter. By comparison, new hires are individuals who, during a particular quarter, started working for an employer he or she had not worked for since at least 1992, the first year for which R&P has wage records (Knapp, 2011). This concept is illustrated in the Figure.
In 2015a, Wyoming employers added an estimated 113,204 new hires compared to 418,821 hires. This does not mean that 418,821 unique individuals were hired, but 418,821 total hires took place.
The estimates of the characteristics of new hires presented in these tables are based on New Hires Survey data collected over a two-year period from third quarter 2013 (2013Q3) through second quarter 2015 (2015Q2). The questionnaire R&P mails to employers is available at http://doe.state.wy.us/LMI/new_hires/NH_Quest_V3.pdf. Information on the methodology used for this survey and full statistical results are available at http://doe.state.wy.us/LMI/newhires.htm.
Reference
Knapp, L. (2011). Survey captures data on Wyoming new hires. Wyoming Labor Force Trends, 48(2). Retrieved December 16, 2016, from http://doe.state.wy.us/LMI/0211/a2.htm
aFor the purposes of this research, 2015 refers to 2014Q3-2015Q2.
