We evaluate nowcasts and one- to four-quarter-ahead forecasts of Swiss full time equivalent jobs from 1998–2011, comparing forecasts of the KOF Swiss Economic Institute and of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs with the outcome of the reference series. Both forecasts are biased...

In der ökonomischen Forschung fehlt bislang gesamtwirtschaftlich repräsentative empirische Evidenz zu der Frage, ob offene Stellen als Vorlaufindikator für die Beschäftigungsentwicklung gelten können. Bei der Interpretation der aktuellen Entwicklung des Stellenangebots wird dies häufig...

In this paper, a set of neural network (NN) models is developed to compute short-term forecasts of regional employment patterns in Germany. NNs are modern statistical tools based on learning algorithms that are able to process large amounts of data. NNs are enjoying increasing interest in...