Database name:
Labour Force Survey

Thematic Coverage:
This survey collects data on the labour market activities of the working age population of Canada. It generates a wide range of estimates characterizing employed, the unemployed, and persons not in the labour force.
Maintained by:
Labour Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Availability:
A public version of the file is available through the Data Liberation Initiative (DLI). Some variables are suppressed and other are aggregated to protect the anonymity of individual survey respondents. Requests for estimates by Special Geographies are examined on a special request basis.



Start Date:
1945; current LFS questionnaire introduced in 1997
Release Date:
2 weeks after data collection
Frequency of collection:
Monthly



Data Collection:
Sample of the working-aged population 15 years and older. Data collected through approximately 80% telephone interview; 20% face to face interview.
Sample size:
Approximately 53 500 households resulting in the collection of labour market information for approximately 100 000 individuals



Geographic coverage:
All provinces, excluding residents of Territories, inmates of institutions, full-time members of the Armed Forces and residents on First Nation reserves
Lowest geographic
level collected:
Postal Code; the LFS uses a probability sample based on a stratified multi-stage design. The ultimate sampling unit of selection is the dwelling.
Lowest geographic
level of release:
Estimates produced at national/provincial level. Economic region (aggregated Census Divisions) and Census Metropolitan Area estimates are also available. The LFS produces unemployment rates for employment insurance regions administered by Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC).
Existing rural variable:
Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) / Non-CMA are coded. Prince Edward Island has no CMA and the CMAs of Montreal and Toronto were each separate strata.

Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) / Census Agglomeration (CA) and Non-CMA can be used as an urban / rural variable. CMA/CA and Non-CMA/CA can be used to construct a 5-level rural/urban variable. Urban core, urban fringe and rural fringe distinguish between central and peripheral urban and rural areas within a census metropolitan area (CMA) or census agglomeration (CA). Urban core is a large urban area around which a CMA or a CA is delineated. The urban core must have a population (based on the previous census) of at least 100,000 persons in the case of a CMA, or between 10,000 and 99,999 persons in the case of a CA. The urban core of a CA that has been merged with an adjacent CMA or larger CA is called the secondary urban core. Urban fringe is the urban area within a CMA or CA that is not contiguous to the urban core. It has a minimum population of 1,000 and a population density of at least 400 per square kilometre, based on the previous census counts. Rural fringe is all territory within a CMA or CA not classified as an urban core or an urban fringe. The other levels of geography in this classification are urban area (small towns) that lie outside of CMA and rural area lying outside of CMA.

Rural definitions that can be constructed from this database include (building block)*:
Census "rural areas"
(Enumeration Area)
Rural and Small Town definition
(Census Subdivision)
Metropolitan area and census agglomeration Influenced Zones
(Census Subdivision)
OECD "rural communities" definition
(Census Consolidated Subdivision)
OECD "predominantly rural regions" definition
(Census Division)
Ehrensaft's "Beale codes"
(Census Division)
* Results for these areas of geography could conceivably be derived from postal codes if respondent confidentiality is ensured.



Data Elements:
  • Labour force: seasonally adjusted or unadjusted data:
  • Labour force profiles
  • Employment (full and part-time), by industry, occupation, class of worker and sex
  • Estimated Labour force
  • Employed persons, hours worked, time lost
  • For employees, wage rates, union status, job permanency, workplace size
  • Unemployment profile
  • Persons not in labour force profile
  • Labour force profiles by metropolitan area and by economic region

Notes:
The LFS uses a rotating panel sample design so that selected dwellings remain in the LFS sample for six consecutive months. One feature is that each of the six rotation groups can be used as a representative sample by itself.

For more information, contact, labour@statcan.ca

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