European Union list of variables – correspondence between the different series

This list shows the correspondence between the LFS variables and the column numbers of the series from 2006 , series from 1983 to 1991, from 1992 to 1997, from 1998 to 2000 and from 2001 to 2005. The asterisks denote that, although there is a correspondence between the questions in the 5 series, some changes have been made in the conventions for coding the data.

LFS variable	Description	Periodicity Y = Yearly Q =Quarterly	Column 2006+	Column 2001-05	Column 1998-00	Column 1992-97	Column 1983-91
	Demographic background
HHSEQNUM	Sequence number in the household	Q	1/2	1/2	1/2	-	-
HHLINK	Relationship to reference person in the household	Y	3	3	3	1	17
HHSPOU	Sequence number of spouse or cohabiting partner	Y	4/5	4/5	4/5	-	-
HHFATH	Sequence number of father	Y	6/7	6/7	6/7	-	-
HHMOTH	Sequence number of mother	Y	8/9	8/9	8/9	-	-
SEX	Sex	Q	10	10	10	2	18
YEARBIR	Year of birth	Q	11/14	11/14	11/14	3/4*	19/20*
DATEBIR	Date of birth in relation to the end of reference period	Q	15	15	15	5	21
MARSTAT	Marital status	Y	16	16	16	6	22
NATIONAL	Nationality	Q	17/18	17/18	17/18	7/8	23/24*
YEARESID	Years of residence in this Member State for persons not born in the country	Y	19/20	19/20	19/20	9/10	-
COUNTRYB	Country of birth	Q	21/22	21/22	21/22	11/12	-
PROXY	Nature of participation in the survey	Q	23	23	23	113	67
derived variables
AGE	Age of interviewed person	Q
	Household derived variables	Y
	Labour status
WSTATOR	Labour status during the reference week	Q	24	24	24	13	25
NOWKREAS	Reason for not having worked at all though having a job	Q	25/26	25	25	14*	26*
derived variable
ILOSTAT	ILO labour status	Q
	Employment characteristics of the main job
STAPRO	Professional status	Q	27	26	26	15	34
SIGNISAL	Continuing receipt of the wage or salary	Q
NACE3D (NACE Rev 2, 3 digits) NA113D (NACE Rev 1 and Rev 1.1, 3 digits) NA702D (NACE 1970, 2 digits)	Economic activity of the local unit	Q	29/31	27/29	27/28*	16/17*	35/36*
ISCO4D	Occupation	Q	32/35	30/33	29/31*	18/20*	37/38*
SUPVISOR	Supervisory responsibilities	Y
SIZEFIRM	Number of persons working at the local unit	Y	37/38	34/35	32/33	21/22	-
COUNTRYW	Country of place of work	Q	39/40	36/37	34/35	23/24	-
REGIONW	Region of place of work	Q	41/42	38/39	36/37	25/26	-
YSTARTWK	Year in which person started working for this employer or as self-employed	Q	43/46	40/43	38/41	27/28*	-
MSTARTWK	Month in which person started working for this employer or as self-employed	Q	47/48	44/45	42/43	29/30	-
FTPT	Full-time / Part-time distinction	Q	50	46	44*	31*	39*
FTPTREAS	Reasons for the part-time work	Y	51	46	44*	31*	39*
TEMP	Permanency of the job	Q	52	47	45	32	40
TEMPREAS	Reasons for having a temporary job	Y	53	47	45	32	40
TEMPDUR	Total duration of temporary job or work contract of limited duration	Q	54	48	46	33	-
TEMPAGCY	Contract with a temporary employment agency	Y
WAYJFOUN	Involvement of the public employment office at any moment in finding the present job	Y
derived variables
NACES	Economic activity in main job by sector	Q
STARTIME	Time since person started to work	Q
ISCO1D	Occupation	Q
	Atypical work
SHIFTWK	Shift work	Y	56	204	204	40	-
EVENWK	Evening work	Y	57	205	205	41	-
NIGHTWK	Night work	Y	58	206	206	42	-
SATWK	Saturday work	Y	59	207	207	43	-
SUNWK	Sunday work	Y	60	208	208	44	-
	Hours worked
HWUSUAL	Number of hours per week usually worked	Q	61/62	49/50	47/48	34/35	28/29
HWACTUAL	Number of hours actually worked during the reference week	Q	63/64	51/52	49/50	36/37	30/31
HWOVERP	Paid overtime in the reference week in the main job	Q
HWOVERPU	Unpaid overtime in the reference week in the main job	Q
HOURREAS	Main reason for hours actually worked during the reference week being different from the person's usual hours	Q	69/70	53/54	51/52	38/39*	32/33*
WISHMORE	Wish to work usually more than the current number of hours	Q	71	55	53	-	-
WAYMORE	Way that a person who wants to work more hours	Y
HWWISH	Number of hours that the person would like to work in total	Q	73/74	56/57	54/55	-	-
HOMEWK	Working at home	Y	75	58	56	45	-
LOOKOJ	Looking for another job and reasons for doing so	Q	76	59	57	46*	41*
LOOKREAS	Reason for looking for another job	Y
	Second job
EXIST2J	Existence of more than one job or business	Q	78	60	58	47	27
STAPRO2J	Professional status (in the second job)	Q	79	61	59	48	-
NACE2J2D (NACE Rev 2, 2 digits) NA112J2D (NACE Rev 1 and Rev 1.1, 2 digits) NA702J2D (NACE 1970, 2 digits)	Economic activity of the local unit (in the second job)	Q	80/81	62/63	60/61	49/50	-
HWACTUA2	Number of hours actually worked during the reference week in the second job	Q	82/83	64/65	62/63	54/55	-
	Previous work experience of person not in employment
EXISTPR	Existence of previous employment experience	Q	84	66	64	57	42*
YEARPR	Year in which person last worked	Q	85/88	67/70	65/68	58/59*	-
MONTHPR	Month in which person last worked	Q	89/90	71/72	69/70	60/61	-
LEAVREAS	Main reason for leaving last job or business	Y	91/92	73	71	62*	43*
STAPROPR	Professional status in last job	Q*: only if having worked in the last 12 months, Y otherwise	93	74	72	63*	44*
NACEPR2D	Economic activity of the local unit in which person last worked	Q*: only if having worked in the last 12 months, Y otherwise	94/95	75/76	73/74	64/65*	45/46*
ISCOPR3D	Occupation of last job	Q*: only if having worked in the last 12 months, Y otherwise	96/98	77/79	75/77	66/68*	47/48*
derived variables
LEAVTIME	Time since person last worked	Q
NACEPRS	Economic activity previous job by sector	Q/Y
ISCOPR1D	Occupation in previous job	Q/Y
	Search for employment
SEEKWORK	Seeking employment during previous four weeks	Q	99	80/81	78/79*	69/70*	49*
SEEKREAS	Reason for not searching an employment	Y
SEEKTYPE	Type of employment sought	Q	101	82	80	71	50
SEEKDUR	Duration of search for employment	Q	102	83	81	72	52*
	Methods used during previous four weeks to find work
METHODA	Contacted public employment office to find work	Q	103	84	82	-	-
METHODB	Contacted private employment agency to find work	Q	104	85	83	-	-
METHODC	Applied to employers directly	Q	105	86	84	-	-
METHODD	Asked friends, relatives, trade unions, etc.	Q	106	87	85	-	-
METHODE	Inserted or answered advertisements in newspapers or journals	Q	107	88	86	-	-
METHODF	Studied advertisements in newspapers or journals	Q	108	89	87	-	-
METHODG	Took a test, interview or examination	Q	109	90	88	-	-
METHODH	Looked for land, premises or equipment	Q	110	91	89	-	-
METHODI	Looked for permits, licences, financial resources	Q	111	92	90	-	-
METHODJ	Awaiting the results of an application for a job	Q	112	93	91	-	-
METHODK	Waiting for a call from a public employment office	Q	113	94	92	-	-
METHODL	Awaiting the results of a competition for recruitment to the public sector	Q	114	95	93	-	-
METHODM	Other method used	Q	115	96	94	-	-
WANTWORK	Willingness to work for person not seeking employment	Q	116	97	95	76	-
AVAILBLE	Availability to start working within two weeks	Q	117	98	96	77	53
AVAIREAS	Main reasons for not being available to start working within two weeks	Y	118	98	96	77	53
PRESEEK	Situation immediately before person started to seek employment (or was waiting for new job to start)	Y	119	99	97	78	51
NEEDCARE	Need for care facilities	Y
REGISTER	Registration at a public employment office	Y	121	100	98	79	54
derived variables
DURUNE	Duration of unemployment	Q
	Main labour status
MAINSTAT	Main status	Y	122	101	99	80*	-
	Education and training Variables from 2003
EDUCSTAT	Student or apprentice in regular education during the last 4 weeks. From 2003 onwards	Q	123	102	100	81*	57*
EDUCLEVL	Level of this education or training.	Q	124
EDUCFILD	Field of this education or training	Y	125/127
COURATT	Education or training received during previous four weeks	Q	128	102	100	81*	57*
COURLEN	Number of hours spent on all taught learning activities within the last 4 weeks	Q	129/131
COURPURP	Purpose of the most recent taught learning activity	Y	132
COURFILD	Field of the most recent taught learning activity	Y	133/135
COURWORH	Did the most recent taught learning activity take place during paid working hour?	Y	136
HATLEVEL	Highest level of education or training successfully completed	Q	137/138
HATFIELD	Field of highest level of education or training successfully completed	Y	139/141			-	-
HATYEAR	Year when highest level of education or training was successfully completed	Y	142/145	112/115	110/113	-	-
HWUSTRAI	Usual number of hours of training per week (until 2003)			107/109	105/106	84/85	-
derived variables
EDUC4WN	Education or training received during previous four weeks (formal and non-formal)	Q		102	100	81*	57*
HATLEV1D	Highest level of education or training successfully completed (3 levels)	Q
PURP4W	Purpose of this education and training (until 2003)			105	103	-	-
LENTR4W	Total length of this education or training (until 2003)	Y		106	104	83*	-
former variables	Not available for standard extractions or anonymised datasets
ISCDVOC	Having obtained a (non tertiary) vocational qualification (minimum duration : 6 months)	Y		111	109	-	-
EDUCTYPE	Type of instruction			103	101*	-	-
EDUCLEVE	Level of this education or training			104	102	-	-
	Situation one year before survey
WSTAT1Y	Situation with regard to activity one year before survey	Y	146	116	114	88*	59*
STAPRO1Y	Professional status one year before survey	Y	147	117	115	89	60
NACE1Y2D (NACE Rev 2, 2 digits) NA111Y2D (NACE Rev 1 and Rev 1.1, 2 digits) NA701Y2D (NACE 1970, 2 digits)	Economic activity of local unit in which person was working one year before survey	Y	148/149	118/119	116/117	90/91	61/62*
COUNTR1Y	Country of residence one year before survey	Y	150/151	120/121	118/119	92/93	63/64*
REGION1Y	Region of residence (within Member State) one year before survey	Y	152/153	122/123	120/121	94/95	65/66*
derived variables
NACE1YS	Economic activity one year before survey by sector	Y
	Income
INCMON	Monthly (take home) pay from main job (until 2008)	Y	154/161	124/131	122/129
INCDECIL	Monthly (take home) pay from main job (from 2009)	Y	154/161	124/131	122/129	-	-
	Technical items relating to the interview
REFYEAR	Reference year of survey	Q	162/165	164/167	162/165	96/97*	1/2*
REFWEEK	Reference week	Q	166/167	168/169	166/167	98/99	3/4
INTWEEK	Interview week	Q	168/169	170/171	168/169	-	-
COUNTRY	Member State	Q	170/171	172/173	170/171	100/101	5/6*
REGION	Region of household	Q	172/173	174/175	172/173	102/103	7/8*
DEGURBA	Degree of urbanisation	Q	174	176	174	104	-
HHNUM	Serial number of household	Q	175/180	177/182	175/180	105/110	9/14
HHTYPE	Type of household	Q	181	183	181	111	15
HHINST	Type of institution	Q	182	184	182	112	16
COEFFY	Yearly weighting factor (Also called COEFF in yearly files)	Y	183/188	185/190	183/188	114/119	68/73
COEFFQ	Quarterly weighting factor (Also called COEFF in quarterly files)	Q	189/194	191/196	189/194	-	-
COEFFH	Quarterly weighting factor of the sample for household characteristics ( in the case of a sample of individuals)	Y	195/200	197/202	195-200	-	-
INTWAVE	Sequence number of the survey wave	Q	201	203	203	-	-
REM	Reference month	Q
INTQUEST	Questionnaire used	Q	202
HHPRIV	Type of individual/household for publication	Q
QUARTER	Reference quarter	Q
YEAR	Year of the survey	Q