21 March 2012

The 'LFS main indicators' section presents a selection of the main statistics on the labour market. They encompass indicators of population, activity and inactivity; employment; unemployment; education and training. Those indicators are mainly but not only based on the results of the European Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS), in few cases integrated with data sources like national accounts employment or registered unemployment. As a result of the application of adjustments, corrections and reconciliation of EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS), 'LFS main indicators' is the most complete and reliable collection of employment and unemployment data available in the sub-domain ' Employment and unemployment'.

The EU-LFS data used for 'LFS main indicators' are, where necessary, adjusted and enriched in various ways, in accordance with the specificities of an indicator. In order to ensure the consistency of the productivity of indicators, the primary source of information for employment growth and activity branches is National Accounts data (domestic concept), while the LFS data (national concept) are used for the gender and social breakdowns. For all others indicators, the most common adjustments cover:

- correction of the main breaks in the LFS series

- estimation of the missing values, (i.e. in case of missing quarters, annual results and EU aggregates are estimated using adjusted quarterly national labour force survey data or interpolations of the EU Labour Force Survey data with reference to the available quarter(s))

- reconciliations of the LFS data with other sources, mainly National Accounts (for Employment growth and activity branches) and national statistics on monthly unemployment (for Harmonised unemployment series).

Those adjustments may produce significant differences between data published under 'LFS main indicators' and 'LFS series - Detailed survey results', particularly for the past years. For the most recent years these two series converge, resultingfrom the implementation of a continuous quarterly survey and the improved quality of the data.

This page focuses on the particularities of 'LFS main indicators'. There are special pages for indicators 'employment growth', 'population in jobless households', 'average exit age of labour market' and 'education indicators: life-long learning, early school leavers and youth education attainment level, see link in section 21.2. General information on the EU-LFS can be found in the ESMS page for 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)', see link in section 21.2. Detailed information regarding the survey methods, organization and comparability issues is available on the EU-LFS webpage.

The 'LFS main indicators' are produced in accordance with the relevant international classification systems. The main classifications used are NACE Rev.1 (NACE Rev.1.1 from 2005) and NACE Rev. 2 (from 2008) for economic activity and ISCED 1997 for the level of education.

For more details on classifications, levels of aggregation and transition rules, please view the EU-LFS webpage: Statistical classifications in EU-LFS.

As a general rule the EU-LFS covers all economic sectors.

The definitions of employment and unemployment, as well as other survey characteristics follow the definitions and recommendations of the International Labour Organisation. The definition of unemployment is further precised in Commission Regulation (EC) No 1897/2000.

The main concepts related to the labour status are the following:

• Employed persons are all persons who worked at least one hour for pay or profit during the reference week or were temporarily absent from such work.
• Unemployed persons are all persons who were not employed during the reference week and had actively sought work during the past four weeks and were ready to begin working immediately or within two weeks.
• The active population (labour force) is defined as the sum of employed and unemployed persons.
• The inactive population consists of all persons who are classified neither as employed nor as unemployed.

The indicators to supplement the unemployment rate are defined as follows:

• Underemployed part-time workers are persons working part-time who wish to work additional hours and are available to do so. Part-time work is recorded as self-reported by individuals.
• Persons seeking work but not immediately available are the sum of persons neither employed nor unemployed who: (a) are actively seeking work during the last 4 weeks but not available for work in the next 2 weeks; or (b)found a job to start in less than 3 months and are not available for work in the next 2 weeks; or (c) found a job to start in 3 months or more; or (d)are passively seeking work during the last 4 weeks and are available for work in the next 2 weeks.
• Persons available to work but not seeking are persons neither employed nor unemployed who want to work, are available for work in the next 2 weeks but are not seeking work.

For more details, please consult the EU-LFS webpage: Concepts and Definitions.

Persons

The EU LFS results cover the total population usually residing in Member States, except for persons living in collective or institutional households. While demographic data are gathered for all age groups, questions relating to labour market status are restricted to persons in the age group of 15 years or older. For exceptions, please consult EU LFS webpage: Comparability of results. In the EFTA countries participating in LFS, i.e. Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, population data are not provided for the age-groups outside the scope of labour market questions. The EU LFS covers all industries and occupations.

The 'LFS main indicators' cover all the territories of the Member States of the European Union, the EFTA countries (excluding Lichtenstein), as well as Candidate Countries. In case of Cyprus, however, the data only refer to the territory under the control of the Government of the Republic of Cyprus. Data for France do not include the overseas departments (DOM). A specific survey is conducted for these territories; however, the results are used in regional statistics only.

Exceptionally, the geographical coverage of indicator employment growth is different. Please refer to the corresponding ESMS page for details (see link below in section 21.2)

The time coverage varies with indicator and country. Data for all Member States are mostly available from 1998 onwards. Data relating to the former EU-15 are available from 1992 onwards. Results for Candidate Countries date back to 2002 and for EFTA countries to 1995.

Not applicable.

Most results measure number of persons (thousands). Some indicators are reported as rates (employment, unemployment rates) or growth rates. Some variables are reported in other units (ages in years, etc.).

The reference periods are the calendar months, quarters or years, depending on the indicator. They are defined building up time periods based on the EU-LFS reference week. For details please refer to the ESMS page on 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)' (see link below in section 21.2)

The EU-LFS implementation is governed by legislative acts of the Council and Parliament, as well as of the Commission. The principal legislation is the Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 of 9 March 1998 on the organisation of a labour force sample survey in the Community (OJ No L 77/3). This is the main regulation with provisions on design, survey characteristics and decision making processes. See also the list of LFS Regulations.

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Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

EU-LFS microdata as received by Eurostat from the national statistical institutes does not contain any administrative information such as names or addresses that would allow direct identification. Access to this microdata is nevertheless strictly controlled and limited to specified Eurostat staff. After data treatment, records are aggregated for all further use.

EU-LFS main indicators data are released according to a quarterly release calendar. Annual results are released at the same time as the fourth quarter.

There is a different, separate release calendar for monthly unemployment data.

For monthly unemployment data - the precise release date is disseminated on Eurostat's website.

For other data, the precise release date is disseminated in the EU LFS dedicated section found in the Eurostat's website.

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Dissemination format') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

The frequency of the data are monthly (only for unemployment), quarterly, annual. The frequency of the dissemination is explained above under 8.3.

News releases on-line (only for monthly unemployment)

Free publications and "Statistics in Focus" on line.

Please consult free data on-line or address to ESTAT-LFS-USER-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu

Micro-data are not applicable to 'LFS main indicators' results, but EU-LFS anonymised microdata are available for research purposes. Please refer to access to microdata

See: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

Please refer to the ESMS page on 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)' (see link below in section 21.2)

For a detailed description of methods and concepts used, as well as for other documents related to the EU LFS, consult the webpage: The EU Labour Force Survey.

Please refer to the ESMS page on 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)' (see link below in section 21.2)

Other documentation can be found in the EU LFS webpage: EU LFS PUBLICATIONS and OTHER DOCUMENTS.

Please refer to the ESMS page on 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)' (see link below in section 21.2)

Please refer to the ESMS page on 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)' (see link below in section 21.2)

The main indicators stemming from the EU-LFS are used for monitoring and measurement of core employment policy objectives of the Community, as defined by the Lisbon European Council in 2000 and the Stockholm European Council in 2001, such as the raise of the employment rate from an average of 61% in the year 2000 to as close as possible to 70% by 2010 and the increase of the number of women in employment from an average of 51% to more than 60% by 2010 (Lisbon target), the intermediate targets for employment rates across the Union as a whole for January 2005 of 67% overall and 57% for women and accordingly the invitation to the Member States to consider setting in their National Employment Plans intermediate employment targets taking due account of their particular national and regional circumstances (Stockholm). The employment rate for persons aged 55 to 64 years is to be raised as well. The target set is to achieve a rate of 50% by 2010. These targets were complemented by the Employment Guidelines 2003/2004 and the 2005/2008 Integrated Guidelines as well as by later Council conclusions, that state that Member States shall aim to achieve full employment by implementing a comprehensive policy approach incorporating demand and supply side measures and thus raise employment rates towards the Lisbon and Stockholm targets.

Some of the LFS main indicators are also Structural Indicators and/or Employment Guidelines Indicators.

Eurostat does not carry out any satisfaction survey targeted at users of labour markets statistics. The relevance of the LFS statistics for the users can thus only be assessed by indirect means. All new requests for labour market statistics are subject to scrutiny by the national experts and representatives of the NSIs and in particular for major topics of interest, for social research the instrument of ad hoc modules is used. The main institutional users other than the Commission are also known to the unit for Labour Market Statistics. Many of them are frequently consulted on various aspects of development and dissemination of labour force statistics.

Even if otherwise adhering to the EU regulations on the EU-LFS, countries do not always provide data for all the variables. This can be for various reasons, such as assessment that the variable in question is irrelevant to the labour market situation in the country or (temporary) inability to implement the variable in the national questionnaire.

In 2006 among the EU-25, 14 countries implemented the full set of compulsory variables, 6 countries did not implement 1-4 compulsory variables, 3 countries did not implement 5-9 compulsory variables, and 2 countries did not provide data for 10-19 compulsory variables.

The overall accuracy is considered as high. Please refer to the ESMS page on 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)' (see link below in section 21.2)

Please refer to the ESMS page on 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)' (see link below in section 21.2)

Please refer to the ESMS page on 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)' (see link below in section 21.2)

Monthly data on seasonally adjusted unemployment rates are published approximately 31 days after the end of the month (average timeliness of 2009 releases). The quarterly series are updated 4 times a year approximately 120 days after the end of the reference quarter. Annual averages are published along with quarter 4 data. Some indicators like 'average exit age from labour market' or 'population in jobless households' may exceptionally have different publication dates because they are Structural Indicators subject to their own publication policy.

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Comparability across countries is considered as high. Please refer to the ESMS page on 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)' (see link below in section 21.2)

Comparability over time is considered as high. Adjustments to EU-LFS data described above in section 3.1 ensure correct comparability of the time series, even when improvements in the EU-LFS have compromised EU-LFS results.

Integration of EU-LFS results with other data sources improve coherence across domains. In particular, special estimation methods for indicator 'employment growth' ensure coherence with national accounts. Please refer to the corresponding ESMS page (see link below in section 21.2)

The ESMS page on 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)' provides general explanations of coherence between EU-LFS, population statistics, national accounts employment and business surveys employment (see link below in section 21.2)

'LFS main indicators' estimates have full internal coherence, as they are all based on the same corpus of microdata and they calculated using the same estimation methods. Arithmetic and accounting identities in the production of LFS datasets are observed.

Annual results are calculated as average of quarterly results, and they are hence fully consistent. Monthly unemployment estimates are also forced by construction to be coherent with quarterly results.

not available

Revisions of previously released data based on EU-LFS are not expected, unless major errors are identified in the data delivered or in their processing. Exceptional revisions may happen e.g. after new estimates of population from a population census.

Exceptionally, the indicator employment growth is subject to the revisions inherent to national accounts.

For a detailed reporting template of introduced/received EU-LFS data revisions for data disseminated by Eurostat from 2005 onwards, consult the LFS data revisions page.

The quarterly EU-LFS is the main source of the data. In case of missing quarterly data, annual results and EU aggregates are estimated by using adjusted quarterly national labour force survey data or interpolations of the EU Labour Force Survey data with reference to the available quarter(s). 

Other data sources used for some indicators are national accounts employment and registered unemployment.

For EU-LFS: quarterly and annual. Unpublished monthly results are used for the estimation of monthly unemployment rates for some Member States.

For national accounts employment: quarterly and annual

For registered unemployment: monthly.

It depends on the data source used for each indicator. By default the ESMS page 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)'  provides the corresponding information. Indicators with special procedures have their own ESMS page. Please refer to corresponding pages (see link below in section 21.2)

Prior to the dissemination of national data, LFS results are validated by the Member States.

EU and Euro area aggregates are calculated aggregating totals from Member Sates. For the data expressed in absolute values for each quarter (i.e. number of persons) no weighting is used. Rates/Ratios are subsequently calculated from the data expressed in absolute values (i.e. number of persons).

Monthly unemployment rates are calculated with different methods. Some indicators, like 'average exit age from labour market' or 'population in jobless households' have specific estimation methods too, documented in the respective ESMS pages (see section 21.2 below).

Annual results are derived from the populations obtained at the annual level. Annual averages of the quarterly data are produced as simple averages of the quarterly populations.

For the period when the survey was run annually in spring, annual averages are calculated as follows: first, the annual results are disaggregated into quarterly results, by interpolation of the spring data; then the annual averages are calculated from those quarterly estimates.

Interpolations for quarterly missing country data are not published, but only used for the compilation of annual averages and European aggregates.

Adjustments are performed for past data only. The LFS detailed survey results and the LFS adjusted series are consistent from 2005 onwards.

For more information on the transition to a quarterly continuous survey, see EU LFS webpage: Comparability of results.

Underemployed part-time workers is published in thousand persons, as % of the labour force aged 15-74 (also called % of active population), as % population 15-74 and as % employment 15-74. Data are not published, in particular, as % economically inactive population. An attempt to extract those data will deliver empty cells.

Persons seeking work but not immediately available is published in thousand persons, as % of the labour force aged 15-74 (also called % of active population), as % population 15-74 and as % economically inactive population. Data are not published, in particular, as % employment 15-74.

Persons available to work but not seeking is published in thousand persons, as % of the labour force aged 15-74 (also called % of active population), as % population 15-74 and as % economically inactive population. Data are not published, in particular, as % employment 15-74.