|
THE EUROPEAN UNION LABOUR FORCE SURVEY |
|
IMPORTANT REMARKS ON THE
DOMAIN LFS detailed tables on EUROSTAT WEBSITE: Last update: 08/04/2009 For the main changes introduced in
the domain 'LFS detailed tables' on 16/03/2007, please click here From 2005 data, EU
totals are based on the available country data for a given quarter/year. Until 2004 data, EU totals
are only possible for quarter 2 (based on
one quarter in spring :quarter 2 for most of countries, on quarter 1 data for
------------------------------------- The annual
data for 2005 have been slightly revised on the 13/06/2008. Please
contact us for more information if needed. For 2005
annual data are based on a specific sample for Between 2003
and 2006, the survey in -------------------------------------- The annual detailed tables' domain is based on
annual averages of quarterly data except for the tables in % (all except
activity, employment, unemployment and inactivity rates). The latest data for
these tables are often published with a short delay compared to annual
averages since they are based on a different sample in certain countries. The symbol :u refers to either data not
reliable due to small sample size or to rates not reliable due no answers
representing more than 30% of the reference population. Data flagged ~u lack reliability either due to
small sample size or, for rates, due to no answers representing between 10%
and 30% of the reference population. |
1.
BASIC CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS
The methodology used follows mainly the Recommendation
of the 13th International Conference of Labour Statisticians, convened in
1982 by the International Labour Organisation. This section gives the
definitions of labour status, employment and unemployment as well as the main
socio-economic dimensions used in the EU LFS. 2.
DEVELOPMENTS AND ORGANISATION OF
THE EU LFS
This section provides the main facts on the historical evolution of the EU LFS and cooperation
between Eurostat and national statistical
institutes in the organisation of the survey. It also describes the
characteristics of the EU LFS, the designs of national surveys and techniques
of data collection. 3. COMPARABILITY OF RESULTS, BREAKS
IN SERIES AND COHERENCE WITH OTHER STATISTICS This section covers the issues related to the
comparability of results between the countries and between the successive
surveys. It presents the overview of the main breaks in series resulting from
the transition to the continuous survey, census revisions and implementation
of new concepts. The divergences in the population coverage and the coverage
of active population are also covered. 4.
EU LFS PUBLISHING GUIDELINES
Eurostat
implements basic guidelines intended to avoid publication of figures which
are statistically unreliable or which risk to allow identification of
individual respondents. Therefore two types of restrictions exist, namely for
reliability and for confidentiality reasons. Regarding confidentiality restrictions, Eurostat does not disseminate EU-LFS estimates based on 3
or less reporting units. As an indicative rule of thumb, this typically
corresponds to population estimates of some 200-400 persons or less. This
restriction is mainly relevant for EU-LFS data tailored for specific
requests. In those cases the user will receive a data file with the
corresponding entry flagged 'c' and the value blanked. These entries will
still be visible and thus indicate that some values below confidentiality
limits have been removed Regarding reliability restrictions, Eurostat flags estimates below certain limits as 'a' and
'b'. Those reliability limits depend on the sample size and design in the
individual Member States. This applies to quarterly data
, annual averages and
ad hoc modules results.
The complete list of reliability limits from 1983 until now is included in
this csv file.
Figures flagged 'a' should not be published; by convention, a dot or full
stop is used instead. Figures flagged 'b', whenever applicable, can be published
with a warning concerning their limited reliability. By convention, they are
published in brackets. From 2006 onwards, the EU LFS can provide three
types of results according to the sample used: quarterly data, annual average
of quarterly data or yearly data. The latter corresponds to the best sample
available for all variables for a given country and year. It corresponds
either to one single quarter (generally quarter 2), the average of quarterly
data or to a sub-sample distributed along the year (with sample size in
general roughly equivalent to one reference quarter). The reliability limits
applicable to this case are the same as the quarterly limits (similar sample
size). LFS results may be disseminated in the form of csv-files. These can sometimes be large and collide with
size restrictions applicable in software used to process the LFS results. For
these cases, a small tool for splitting large csv-files
is available here. 5. EU LFS REGULATION
The survey is based on European legislation since 1973. The principal
legal act is the Council
Regulation (EC) No. 577/98 that stipulates the
provisions on design, survey characteristics and decision making processes.
The implementation rules are specified in the successive Commission
regulations. 6. EU LFS PUBLICATIONS and OTHER
DOCUMENTS
This section gives an overview of available
publications containing description of the European Union Labour
Force Survey on: Methods and definitions, 7.
STATISTICAL CLASSIFICATIONS USED
IN THE EU LFS
The EU-LFS is based on international classifications
(NACE for economic activity, ISCO for occupation, ISCED for education and
NUTS for regional data). This section gives the details about classification
used, the levels of aggregation as well as transition rules in cases a
particular classification was changed/modified.. 8. DISSEMINATION STRUCTURE -
EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT DOMAIN
This section briefly presents the main components of
the dissemination of the LFS data: LFS Main Indicators, LFS - detailed
quarterly survey results, LFS - detailed annual survey results and LFS
specific topics. 9. DATABASE DESCRIPTION ·
Core variables ( User guide ) Annex Explanatory notes PDF version ·
Core variables (User guide )
HTML version ·
Overview
of EU LFS coding lists, explanatory notes and classifications 10. NATIONAL QUESTIONNAIRES ·
Ad-Hoc
Modules Questionnaires |