Updated April 14, 2023

All previous COVID requirements have been lifted.

All users must have both Princeton IRB and IAB approval to reserve the IAB Data Center room. Read details below about how to obtain access.

The Data Center is located in the Industrial Relations Section on the second floor of the Louis A. Simpson building, 20 Washington Road, and is open Monday-Friday, 9 am - 4:30 pm. 

About Appointments

• Book your appointment on the Bookings Calendar
• Appointments are for 3.5 hour blocks.
• Submit a separate booking form for each block you wish to reserve.
• Please book or cancel an appointment at least 1 hour in advance. 
• Appointments are available up to 28 days in advance.
• If you do NOT plan to arrive around your appointment start time, please email us with your expected arrival time
• For your first appointment, sign this form and bring it with you.
• All changes to appointments must be done within MS Bookings. If you add the appointment to your calendar system, always open the “manage my booking” link in the appointment or in the confirmation email.  If you delete or change the appointment in your calendar, this will NOT change your Bookings reservation!
• Upon your arrival, you will be provided with a card key for access to the data room. Please return the card either to a Section staff member or in the key return box near the data room.,

The Research Data Center (FDZ) of the German Federal Employment Agency (BA) in the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) facilitates access to micro data on the labor market for non-commercial empirical research. Originally located at the Institute of Employment Research in Nuremberg, Germany, an additional access point for FDZ data has been opened in the Industrial Relations Section (IR Section) located in the Louis A. Simpson building at Princeton University.

The FDZ data on individuals, households and establishments derives from several sources. Administrative data are obtained from the notification process of the social security system and the internal procedures of the Federal Employment Agency. The data contains daily information on the employment and unemployment history of individuals, occupations, education, wages, benefits, job search activities and participation in training programs covered by the German social security system. These records are available for every employee participating in the German social security system since 1975 and cover about 80% of the German population. The IAB also conducts its own surveys of households and firms. The data include establishment-level survey and administrative data on German employers and linked-employer-employee data. The administrative and survey data can be analyzed separately, but all IAB surveys can also be linked to the respondent administrative records.

For more information, please see a presentation given by Joerg Heining, researcher at the FDZ or review the most recent update of the FDZ newsletter.

The day-to-day administrators of the data center are Gene Piccola and Valerie Ching.

Only users who have completed the application process and have been approved may use the Data Center. .

Princeton-based researchers: please work with your ORPA grants manager as you prepare your application and in order to obtain a Princeton institution signature on data use agreements and amendments.

The Center is located in the Industrial Relations Section on the second floor of the Louis A. Simpson building, 20 Washington Road, and is open Monday-Friday, 9 am - 4:30 pm.

Please contact Gene Piccola with any questions.