Labour Force Surveys are

statistical survey Survey methodology is "the study of survey methods". As a field of applied statistics concentrating on human-research surveys, survey methodology studies the sampling of individual units from a population and associated techniques of survey d ...

s conducted in a number of countries designed to capture data about the

labour market Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labou ...

. All

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

member states are required to conduct a Labour Force Survey annually. Labour Force Surveys are also carried out in some non-EU countries. They are used to calculate the

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the firs ...

(ILO)-defined

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work du ...

rate. The ILO agrees the definitions and concepts employed in Labour Force Surveys.

History

United States

In 1940, the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

started the Monthly Report of Unemployment, a national sample survey of households. In 1942, it was transferred to the

Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

with the new name of the Monthly Report on the Labor Force. It further became the

Current Population Survey The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of about 60,000 U.S. households conducted by the United States Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS uses the data to publish reports early each month called the Em ...

in 1948 with a wider scope of demographic, social, and economic characteristics of the population. While the Census Bureau has continued to collect the data, the

Bureau of Labor Statistics The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the government of the United States, U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics, labor economics and ...

has been in charge of analysis and publicationof the labour force data from the Survey since 1952.

Japan

The Statistics Bureau of Japan has conducted the every month since September 1946, which was modeled after the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

' Monthly Report on the Labor Force. Its questionnaire was modified in May 1949 to meet the Resolution by the 6th International Conference of Labour Statisticians of the

(ILO) in 1947. After some additional changes in sampling, questionnaires, and survey methods, the main framework of the LFS was almost finalized by 1967 and has offered the long-term time-series data since then. It also offers data from extra surveys that have been published as "Detailed Tabulation" containing supplemental findings in addition to the LFS main results.

France

In 1950, the

National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

(INSEE) started the Employment Survey as an annual survey. It has been conducted every week since 2003, using the name of the Employment, Unemployment and Inactivity Survey, also known as the Continuous Employment Survey. It is the only French source for the data about economic activity, employment, and unemployment as defined by the guidelines of International Labour Office and

Eurostat Eurostat ("European Statistical Office"; also DG ESTAT) is a department of the European Commission ( Directorate-General), located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statist ...

. In 2021, the INSEE introduced the new questionnaire in line with the new European regulation and the new protocol with possibility of use of the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

for re-interviewing.

Australia

The first

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n LFS was conducted by the

Australian Bureau of Statistics The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is an List of Australian Government entities, Australian Government agency that collects and analyses statistics on economic, population, Natural environment, environmental, and social issues to advi ...

(ABS) in November 1960. Initially, the LFS was conducted only in state capitals, in February, May, August, and November, but in February 1964 it was rolled out to the whole of

. The last quarterly survey was conducted in November 1977. The LFS became monthly in February 1978, when the range of topics covered was increased and the LFS measure became the official measure of unemployment.

South Korea

Statistics Korea has conducted the Economically Active Population Survey since 1962. It became a monthly survey in 1982. Additional surveys have also been conducted.

Spain

The National Institute of Statistics (INE) has conducted the Economically Active Population Survey since 1964. It was on a quarterly basis during 1964–1968, twice a year during 1969–1974, quarterly during 1975–1998, and "continuous" (weekly) in 1999 onward. Upon Spain's incorporation into the

European Communities The European Communities (EC) were three international organizations that were governed by the same set of Institutions of the European Union, institutions. These were the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Atomic Energy Co ...

in 1986, the questionnaire was modified in accordance with the recommendations by the 13th International Conference of Labour Statisticians of the ILO (1982) as well as the European Community Labour Force Survey. It recently experienced major methodological changes in 2002 (new definition of unemployment), in 2005 (new questionnaire and computer-assisted telephone survey method), and in 2021 (to adapt the new European regulations 2019). The Survey methods also follow the ILO resolutions of 2013 and 2018.

United Kingdom

The

Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible fo ...

(ONS) conducted the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

's first Labour Force Survey in 1973 and repeated it every two years until 1983. It is curated by the UK Data Service and can be accessed for research through the

The

European Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...

then introduced a requirement for all of its member states to conduct an LFS (following

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

the UK is now no longer a member state) and the ONS introduced a quarterly element to its LFS. The UK switched to a full quarterly survey in 1992, initially with seasonal quarters but moving to calendar quarters in 2006.

New Zealand

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

's quarterly Household Labour Force Survey was established in December 1985. It was revised in 1990 to include new variables including

underemployment Underemployment is the underuse of a worker because their job does not use their skills, offers them too few hours, or leaves the worker idle. It is contrasted with unemployment, where a person lacks a job at all despite wanting one. Examples ...

Switzerland

The Federal Statistical Office started the Swiss Labour Force Survey in 1991 as an annual survey. The Survey data is comparable with

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...

and EU LFS data. Since 2010, it has been conducted on a continuous basis.

European Union

Prior to 1998, EU member states were required to conduct an LFS in one quarter per year, but as a result of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 577/98 of 9 March 1998 they are now expected to submit LFS results for every quarter to

. Most, though not all, participating countries changed their LFSs to continuous surveys in the period 1998 to 2004. Responsibility for sample selection,

questionnaire A questionnaire is a research instrument that consists of a set of questions (or other types of prompts) for the purpose of gathering information from respondents through survey or statistical study. A research questionnaire is typically a mix of ...

design and

fieldwork Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct f ...

lies with member states' national statistical offices, who then forward the results to Eurostat, employing a common coding scheme. The EU LFS, as it is known, covers not only the EU member states but also three of the four

European Free Trade Association The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is a regional trade organization and free trade area consisting of four List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Europe, European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. ...

countries (

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

) and candidate countries.

Usage

In addition to being used to generate

official statistics Official statistics are statistics published by Government, government agencies or other Statutory corporation, public bodies such as International organization, international organizations as a Public good (economics), public good. They provide q ...

, data from the LFS are employed by academics and other researchers. In the UK, for example, the LFS has been used as a data source for research projects on topics such as female employment, the economic returns to education, migration and ethnic minority groups.

References

{{Reflist

External links

*
Volume 3: Economically active population, employment, unemployment and hours of work (household surveys)
' of the International Labour Organization's ''Sources and Methods: Labour Statistics'': provides details of the labour force and household surveys conducted by a range of countries International Labour Organization Quantitative research Unemployment Social statistics data Statistical data agreements