Apparently the economic situation has an effect on the amount of open position for university graduates. It is clearly proven that job advertisements reflect accurately changes in the economic climate as well as in the academic labour market situation (Sailer 2009). It is also empirical evident that the structure, length, and content of job advertisements / job offers in newspapers varies due to mainly economical but also technical and social changes. Central purpose of the paper is to distinguish between different existing forms of job competition for variable academic occupational groups to elucidate that the economic crisis even enhances the “vertical” and “horizontal” competition between graduates. The theoretical input provides the filter- or screening theory by Arrow. As Arrows puts it that Higher Education serves as a screening device, one can also detect that the purchasers of labor themselves are setting filters in job advertisements to include or to exclude certain graduates or occupational groups. This paper will present the latest research results of a comparative empirical study. Analysed job ads from 2009 will be compared with the results from 1999 and 2004 in order to illustrate the competitive aspect of job offers in German Newspapers. The results also can unfold the differences between the qualification patterns of groups of academic graduates who are addressed in the advertisements. The results may allow forecasting possible developments in the field of the qualification research and providing objective evidence of the economic dependency between the content and structure of recruitment advertising on the one hand and the economic climate on the other hand. This paper would like also to indicate the educational necessity of analysing job ads in order to (re-)structure “fields of studies” in a way that it will meet the demands of a changing professional world. The analysis of job is a rather young empirical method which provides insights about the development of the labor market as well as changes in job profiles.

Arrow. K. J. (1973). Higher Education as a Filter. Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 2., p. 193–216. Dietzen, A. & Kloas, P.-W. (1999). Stellenanzeigenanalyse – eine effektive Methode zur Früherkennung des Qualifikationsbedarfs. In: L. Alex & H. Bau (Hrsg.), Wandel be-ruflicher Anforderungen. Der Beitrag des BIBB zum Aufbau eines Früherkennungs-systems Qualifikationsentwicklung (S. 13–32). Bielefeld: Bertelsmann. Kloas, P.-W. & Gravalas, B. (1991). Was von Berufsanfängern verlangt wird – Anforde-rungsprofile in Stellenanzeigen. Berlin, Bonn: Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung.