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The Jobs Ad Database (JABD) Prototype: Building a New Resource for Historical Labour Market Research

Johansson, Mathias LU orcid ; Gladoić Håkansson, Peter ; Karlsson, Tobias LU and La Mela, Matti (2026) In Lund Papers in Economic History
Abstract
This paper introduces a novel dataset that serves as a prototype of what we call the ‘Job Ads Database’ (JADB). The underlying job advertisements are gathered from the Swedish digitalized newspaper corpus hosted by and made accessible through the Swedish National Library (Kungliga Biblioteket). JADB enables studying how the frequency and content of job advertisements change over time and sheds new light on the role of newspapers in recruitment, both relative to earlier practices and to public employment offices. We compare JADB data with official employment statistics of notified vacancies and applications from the Swedish Public Employment Administration (SPEA).
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
job advertisements, newspapers, historical labour markets, recruitment practices, Sweden, digitized newspapers, HISCO, labour demand, nineteenth century, twentieth century, C55, C81, J63, J64, N33, N34
in
Lund Papers in Economic History
issue
2026:264
pages
22 pages
project
DigitalHistory@Lund
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
6b252409-8c47-4f26-be60-2a35c69a24b7
date added to LUP
2026-03-10 15:41:07
date last changed
2026-03-10 16:36:22
@misc{6b252409-8c47-4f26-be60-2a35c69a24b7,
  abstract     = {{This paper introduces a novel dataset that serves as a prototype of what we call the ‘Job Ads Database’ (JADB). The underlying job advertisements are gathered from the Swedish digitalized newspaper corpus hosted by and made accessible through the Swedish National Library (Kungliga Biblioteket). JADB enables studying how the frequency and content of job advertisements change over time and sheds new light on the role of newspapers in recruitment, both relative to earlier practices and to public employment offices. We compare JADB data with official employment statistics of notified vacancies and applications from the Swedish Public Employment Administration (SPEA).}},
  author       = {{Johansson, Mathias and Gladoić Håkansson, Peter and Karlsson, Tobias and La Mela, Matti}},
  keywords     = {{job advertisements; newspapers; historical labour markets; recruitment practices; Sweden; digitized newspapers; HISCO; labour demand; nineteenth century; twentieth century; C55; C81; J63; J64; N33; N34}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{03}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{2026:264}},
  series       = {{Lund Papers in Economic History}},
  title        = {{The Jobs Ad Database (JABD) Prototype: Building a New Resource for Historical Labour Market Research}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/244575020/LUPEH_264.pdf}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}