Labour market and income and data guide

Labour force survey

Description: Collects data on the labour market activities and demographic characteristics of the working-age population of Canada; provides estimates of the number and characteristics of the employed, the unemployed, and persons not in the labour force; is a vehicle for supplementary surveys on the labour market and other issues.

Who/what is surveyed: the population aged 15 and over residing in Canada, except residents of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, (Yukon is surveyed, but is not included in the national totals), persons living on Indian reserves, inmates of institutions and full-time members of the Armed Forces (exclusions account for about 2% of the population).

How the data is collected: sample of about 53,000 households or more than 100,000 individuals. Households are in the sample for six months—a personal interview is conducted the first time; telephone interviews are conducted in subsequent months.

Geographic detail: Canada, provinces, census metropolitan areas, economic regions and some census agglomerations and urban and rural areas (the smaller the population of an area, the more the data are subject to sampling variability)

Demographic detail: age, sex, marital status, family relationships and household composition

Information collected:
1. employment
2. unemployment
3. usual and actual hours of work
4. employee hourly and weekly wages
5. industry of current or most recent job
6. occupation of current or most recent job
7. class of worker (employee, self-employed, unpaid family worker)
8. public/private sector
9. union status
10. overtime hours, whether paid or unpaid
11. permanent/temporary work
12. workplace and firm size
13. family information (for example, the number of unemployed family members)
14. school attendance (full- or part-time and type of institution)
15. hours of work lost, by reason
16. job tenure
17. duration of unemployment
18. methods of job search and type of job sought
19. reasons for working part time
20. identification of "discouraged workers"
21. involuntary part-time work
22. multiple jobholding
23. retirement age
24. hirings and separations

Frequency: Monthly

Sample size: About 53,000 households or more than 100,000 individuals

Data availability: some data back to 1946; most data series are consistent since 1976; NAICS and SOC91 data back to 1987

Reference period: usually the week including the 15th day of the month

Release dates: within 13 days of collection

Response rates: 95%

What makes the data valuable:
• very timely information
• long time series
• can be linked to supplementary survey data such as volunteer work, child care, and absence from work
• seasonally adjusted data available for many series
• cover all industries
• cover the self-employed

Products and services:

Regular publications:

1. Labour Force Information (Catalogue no. 71-001-PPB or 71-001-PIB), monthly

Latest data release: /subjects-sujets/labour-travail/lfs-epa/lfs-epa-eng.htm

2. Labour Force Update (Catalogue no. 71-005-XPB), quarterly. Topics covered:

a) Spring 1997: Youths and the labour market
b) Summer 1997: Hours of work
c) Fall 1997: The self-employed
d) Winter 1998: An overview of the 1997 labour market
e) Spring 1998: Older workers
f) Summer 1998: A new perspective on wages
g) Fall 1998: A Canada-U.S. labour market comparison
h) Winter 1999: An overview of the 1998 labour market
i) Spring 1999: Employment by industry and occupation based on new classifications
j) Summer 1999: Supplementary measures of unemployment
k) Fall 1999: Youths and the labour market, 1998-99
l) Winter 2000: An overview of the 1999 labour market)
m) Spring 2000: An overview of average wages and wage distributions in the late 1990s
n) Summer 2000: New hirings and permanent separations

Note: The Summer 2000 issue was the last Labour Force Update. This publication was merged into Perspectives on Labour and Income, Catalogue Nos. 75-001-XPE (quarterly paper edition) and 75-001-XIE (monthly online edition).

3. Labour Force Historical Review on CD-ROM (Catalogue no. 71F0004XCB), annual

4. Historical Labour Force Statistics (Catalogue no. 71-201-XPB), annual

5. Guide to the Labour Force Survey (Catalogue no. 71-543-GIE)

6. CANSIM (Canadian Socioeconomic Information Management System), Statistics Canada’s publicly accessible database; for further information, please call: (613) 951-8200

7. Articles in Perspectives on Labour and Income,Catalogue no. 75-001-XPE, quarterly paper edition and Catalogue no. 75-001-XIE, monthly online edition.

8. Microdata files and special tabulations are available on a cost-recovery basis.

Responsible division: Labour Force Survey