Illinois State Unemployment Insurance Program Data
Information on employees on Unemployment Insurance (UI) collected from individuals, employers, and workforce service providers in the course of administering unemployment insurance programs and benefits in the state of Illinois.
All employees of Unemployment Insurance (UI) covered Illinois employers. Excluded from the data are individuals who are self-employed, independent contractors, employed by the military or federal government, work part-time for schools or selected nonprofits, or engage in agricultural work (Jacob and Ludwig 2012, 280).
Access
This database is available to researchers meeting one of the eligibility criteria outlined here. To request data from IDES, researchers must submit a Data Sharing Request Form, also known as a Data Use Agreement (DUA), online. If the request is approved, researchers will receive instructions for creating an IDES Shared Data Agreement (SDA) online ID. This allows researchers to access the IDES SDA portal where SDA forms and data are provided. As part of the application process, researchers must complete and submit an Internal Control Questionnaire (ICQ) and SDA Employee Acknowledgement Forms for each person who is authorized to access the data. Researchers must also sign a DUA. Examples of these forms can be found on the IDES Shared Data Agreements webpage.
IDES does not require IRB approval to gain access to data, but the process involves approval from an IDES attorney who evaluates whether the proposed research and use of data is in accordance with unemployment insurance law.
Timeline for Access
IDES starts reviewing data requests immediately. The timeline depends on the applicant’s completion of the ICQ, SDA Employee Acknowledgement Forms, and submission of payment. It takes 6-8 weeks to arrive at a SDA. After an agreement is reached, the request is put in a queue. IDES notifies researchers how long it will take for the receipt of data based on the number of ongoing requests.
After researchers use the data for the time agreed upon in the SDA, the data must be disposed of or returned to IDES unless the researchers submit an SDA Renewal Application and are granted an extension.
Lag Time
Records are updated quarterly, and are available on approximately a 7-9 month lag.
Cost
Data recipients will typically be required to pay the unemployment insurance program’s non-incidental costs associated with the processing and handling of the data request. These costs will depend on the size and scope of the data request.
Linking
IDES data can be linked to a list of study participants provided by a researcher. Illinois State University (ISU) is responsible for linking data, and files are shared through Secure Shell File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).
Identifiers Available for Linking
- First and last name
- Social Security number
Data Contents
Partial List of Variables
Demographics of individuals, business name, addresses of individuals, addresses of businesses, wages, job status, industry, occupation.
J-PAL Randomized Evaluations Using this Data Set
Davis, Jonathan M.V., and Sara B. Heller. 2017. “Rethinking the Benefits of Youth Employment Programs: The Heterogeneous Effects of Summer Jobs.” NBER Working Paper #23443. doi:10.3386/w23443.
Doyle, Joseph, J. Jr. 2007. “Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects of Foster Care.” American Economic Review, 97(5): 1583-1610. doi:10.1257/aer.97.51583.
Jacob, Brian A., Max Kapustin, and Jens Ludwig. 2014. "The Impact of Housing Assistance on Child Outcomes: Evidence from a Randomized Housing Lottery." Quarterly Journal of Economics doi:10.1093/qje/qju030.
Jacob, Brian A. and Jens Ludwig. 2012. “The Effects of Housing Assistance on Labor Supply: Evidence from a Voucher Lottery.” American Economic Review 102(1):272-304. doi:10.1257/aer.102.1.272.