Labour force survey

European Commission Eurostat

Description

Methods and definitions 1998
Population and social conditions
Labour market - free movement of workers

Informations

• Publié par: EUROPEAN-COMMISSION-EUROSTAT
• Nombre de lectures: 8
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

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Labour
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Methods and definitions
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© European Communities, 1999
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Labour
force survey
Methods and definitions
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EUROPEAN and social
COMMISSION conditions Preface
It is now almost forty years since the first attempt was made During the lifetime of the survey, the need has also been
in 1960 to collect comparable data on employment and recognised to be continually alert for any adaptations
unemployment from all six Member States of the then needed to meet changes in information requirements. The
European Community by means of a labour force survey. general methodology employed, together with a host of
Since that date, the number of Member States has risen to details concerning the definitions used and the practical
fifteen and the character of the European labour market has implementation, have therefore been subject to continual
been transformed by the radical changes which have taken evolution. Eurostat, which is responsible for the
place, for example in activity rates, in the allocation of dissemination of the results of the survey at European Union
working-time, and in the distribution of employment across level, has been conscious that accurate and up-to-date
the various sectors of the economy. information on these aspects is indispensable to
interpretation of the results. This information has therefore
been published on a regular basis under the title Labour Throughout this period, the institutions of the European
Force Survey: Methods and Definitions, of which several Union have included the issues of employment and
unemployment among their highest priorities. Both the editions, documenting the successive changes made, have
appeared in 1977, 1985, 1988,1992 and 1996. economic and the social implications of recent trends in
these areas have been regularly examined at meetings of
the Council of Europe, which has repeatedly stressed the The ongoing development of the European Union has led to
importance of monitoring such developments. The demand changed information requirements, which meant that a
for accurate and comparable information on the labour revision of the survey was necessary. Council Regulation N°
market has consequently become progressively more 577/98 is the outcome of four years' work with the national
urgent. experts of all the Member States and describes the new
framework for the Community Survey with effect from 1998.
In this context, the role of the EU Labour Force Survey has
gained steadily in importance, and is now universally The purpose of this publication is to provide the necessary
recognised as an indispensable tool for observing labour information for those who, from 1998 on, will organise and
market developments and for taking the appropriate policy use the survey. It covers the main technical aspects of the
survey, basic concepts and definitions, a detailed list of measures. The LFS is the only source of information in
variables and explanatory notes for compiling and these areas to provide data which is truly comparable in the
interpreting the data. sense of being independent of the national administrative
and legislative framework. Among the statistical instruments Eurostat wishes to thank the experts responsible for the
available in the European Union, the LFS is unique for the national labour force surveys in the Member States for their
help in compiling this methodological information on the sample-size it covers, for the length of the time-series which
operation of the European Union Labour Force Survey. it offers, and for the unrivalled picture it can provide of
economic and social developments from the very earliest
days of the European Community right up to the present
day. Contents
Pages
Labour force surveys in the European Union
The purpose of labour force surveys 7
The history of labour force surveys 8
The development of the EU Labour Force Survey
The organisation of the EUr Forcey 9
Data collection and diffusion of results 10
Technical features of the EU Labour Force Survey
Field of the Survey
Reference period
Units of measurement
Reliability of the results
Comparability ofs between countries y of resutlsn successive surveys 12
Basic concepts and definitions 1
Characteristics of the national surveys5
Table 1 : Sample design and data collection and data processing 24
Questionnaire communautaire 27
Annexes
1 : Regional codes used in the EU Labour Force Survey
[based on the Nomenclature of Territorial Units (NUTS)] 49
2: Statistical Classification of Economic Activities (NACE Rév. 1 ) 55
3: International Standard Classification of Occupations [ISCO-88 (COM)]
4: Codification of countries 5
5: Attainment levels in education and training 61
Explanatory notes to the EU list of questions3
Council Regulation (EEC) n 577/98 of 9 March 1998
on the organisation of the EU Labour Force Survey 75 Labour force surveys in the European Union
The purpose of labour force surveys
A labour force survey is an inquiry directed to households clearly of considerable importance in the context of the
European Union. designed to obtain information on the labour market and
related issues by means of personal interviews. As it would
There are, however, some limitations which apply to labour
clearly involve considerable expense to include all
force surveys. Cost considerations place a constraint on the
households (as in population censuses) labour force surveys
overall household sample size and the resultant sampling
are usually confined to a sample of households, the actual
variability limits the level of detail that can reasonably be
size of which depends primarily on the level of detail shown. Thus, for example, while the labour force survey can
required in the survey estimates. be used to compile estimates of employment across
economic sectors, it cannot be expected to yield reliable
figures at a detailed level of regional disaggregation, nor for There are a number of advantages in using an approach of
this kind in collecting labour market information. In the first individual small industrial or commercial subsectors. The
sampling base on which such estimates would depend place it affords the opportunity to obtain information on
would be too small, and the degree of variability relevant labour market aspects across all sectors of the
correspondingly high. For the same reason, there is also a economy in a consistent manner. It also facilitates the
limit to what can be achieved with labour force surveys in interpretation of the information in a wider population setting,
since the information collected need not necessarily be monitoring trends over time (in employment and
unemployment, for example), especially if the movements confined to persons in the labour force (i.e. those employed
involved are relatively small. or unemployed), but can involve all other persons in the
households covered. In current labour market circumstances
this is an important additional dimension as analysis is It is appropriate at this point to refer briefly to other sources
increasingly concerned with those on the peripheries of the of statistical information so that the position of the labour
labour market. force survey in an overall statistical perspective can be more
clearly understood. The other principal sources of labour
In recent decades the borderline between the labour force market information are :
and what is termed the «economically inactive» population
has become increasingly blurred, due to the increasing (a) surveys of enterprises
incidence of part-time and temporary work and the ease with (b) administrative records.
which large numbers of persons (particularly women and
young persons in the final stages of their education) The former source clearly has the potential for providing
repeatedly enter or leave the labour force. Furthermore, the detailed estimates of employment for individual sectors (and
emergence of mass unemployment and long-term in fact this is done in many countries). However, such a
unemployment have resulted in a great many individuals source is clearly restricted to a consideration of those with
becoming «marginalised» in the sense that they tend to lose jobs and cannot provide any information on the unemployed,
tangible contact with the core labour market. The wider nor other persons outside the labour force but who may
coverage associated with labour force surveys also allows have an attachment to it. Such surveys can, however, be
the possibility of assessing labour market effects in a used to obtain information, not only in relation to
household or family context. This is important if, for example, employment, but also to output, earnings and hours worked.
one wishes to measure the extent to which persons other The simultaneous collection of consistent data on