Labour Force Survey Household Datasets, 2002-2018: Secure Access

The <i>Labour Force Survey</i> (LFS) is a unique source of articulated information using international definitions of employment and unemployment and economic inactivity, together with a wide range of related topics such as occupation, training, hours of work and personal characteristics of household members aged 16 years and over. The first LFS was conducted in 1973, under the terms of a regulation derived from the Treaty of Rome, and the provision of information for the Statistical Office of the European Communities (SOEC), now known as Eurostat, continues to be one of the reasons for carrying out the survey. Eurostat co-ordinates information from labour force surveys in the European Union (EU) member states in order to assist the EU in such matters as the allocation of the Social Fund. The LFS was carried out biennially from 1973 to 1983, and was increasingly used during this time by British government departments to obtain information that would assist in the framing of social and economic policy. By 1983, the LFS was being used by the Employment Department to obtain information which was not available from other sources or was only available for Census years. Between 1984 and 1991 the survey was carried out annually and consisted of two elements:<ul><li>a quarterly survey conducted in Great Britain throughout the year, in which each sampled address was called on five times at quarterly intervals, and which yields about 15,000 responding households in every quarter</li><li>a 'boost' survey in the spring quarter (then March-May, as data were collected seasonally), which produced interviews at over 44,000 households in Great Britain and over 4,000 households in Northern Ireland</li></ul>During 1991, the LFS was further developed, so that from 1992 quarterly data were made available, with a quarterly sample size approximately equivalent to that of the previous annual data, that is 60,000 responding households every quarter. Thus, the survey became known as the <i>Quarterly Labour Force Survey</i> (QLFS). Between March 1992 and November 1994, interviewing in Northern Ireland was only conducted in the spring, with no quarterly element. However, from December 1994, data gathering for Northern Ireland moved to the full quarterly cycle to match the rest of the country. From that date, the QLFS covered the whole of the United Kingdom, though some additional annual Northern Ireland LFS datasets are also held at the UK Data Archive.<br> <br> <b>Secure Access QLFS household data</b><br> Up to 2015, the LFS household datasets were produced twice a year (April-June and October-December) from the corresponding quarter's individual-level data. From January 2015 onwards, they are now produced each quarter alongside the main QLFS. The household datasets include all the usual variables found in the individual-level datasets, with the exception of those relating to income, and are intended to facilitate the analysis of the economic activity patterns of whole households. It is recommended that the existing individual-level LFS datasets continue to be used for any analysis at individual level, and that the LFS household datasets be used for analysis involving household or family-level data. For some quarters, users should note that all missing values in the data are set to one '-10' category instead of the separate '-8' and '-9' categories. For that period, the ONS introduced a new imputation process for the LFS household datasets and it was necessary to code the missing values into one new combined category ('-10'), to avoid over-complication. From the 2013 household datasets, the standard -8 and -9 missing categories have been reinstated.<br> <br> Secure Access household datasets for the QLFS are available from 2002 onwards, and include additional, detailed variables not included in the standard 'End User Licence' (EUL) versions. Extra variables that typically can be found in the Secure Access versions but not in the EUL versions relate to: geography; date of birth, including day; education and training; household and family characteristics; employment; unemployment and job hunting; accidents at work and work-related health problems; nationality, national identity and country of birth; occurence of learning difficulty or disability; and benefits.<br> <br> Prospective users of a Secure Access version of the QLFS will need to fulfil additional requirements, commencing with the completion of an extra application form to demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the extra, more detailed variables, in order to obtain permission to use that version. Secure Access users must also complete face-to-face training and agree to Secure Access' User Agreement (see 'Access' section below). Therefore, users are encouraged to download and inspect the EUL version of the data prior to ordering the Secure Access version.<br> <br> <b>LFS Documentation</b><br> The documentation available from the Archive to accompany LFS datasets largely consists of each volume of the User Guide including the appropriate questionnaires for the years concerned. However, LFS volumes are updated periodically by ONS, so users are advised to check the ONS <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/method-quality/specific/labour-market/labour-market-statistics/index.html" title="Labour Force Survey (LFS) User Guidance">LFS User Guidance</a> pages before commencing analysis.<br> <br> <b>Variables DISEA and LNGLST</b><br> Dataset A08 (Labour market status of disabled people) which ONS suspended due to an apparent discontinuity between April to June 2017 and July to September 2017 is now available. As a result of this apparent discontinuity and the inconclusive investigations at this stage, comparisons should be made with caution between April to June 2017 and subsequent time periods. However users should note that the estimates are not seasonally adjusted, so some of the change between quarters could be due to seasonality. Further recommendations on historical comparisons of the estimates will be given in November 2018 when ONS are due to publish estimates for July to September 2018. <br> <br> An article explaining the quality assurance investigations that have been conducted so far is available on the <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/methodologies/analysisofthediscontinuityinthelabourforcesurveydisabilitydataapriltojune2017tojulytoseptember2017" target="_blank">ONS Methodology</a> webpage. For any queries about Dataset A08 please email Labour.Market@ons.gov.uk.<br> <br> <b>Latest Edition Information</b><br> For the fifth edition (December 2018) the April - June 2018 data file has been added to the study; in addition, the documentation has been enhanced.<br> <br>

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