EU-Labour Force Survey
The European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) is a large household sample survey conducted across EU member states and EFTA countries.
The survey provides quarterly data on labour participation of those aged 15 and over – as well as on persons outside the labour force. The latest update was in February 2012, ranging from 1983 to 2010.
Data is collected by national statistical agencies and collated by Eurostat.
European national statistical agencies are responsible for selecting the sample, preparing the questionnaires, conducting the direct interviews among households, and forwarding the results to Eurostat in accordance with a common coding scheme;
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Using the same concepts and definitions
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Following the International Labour Organisation's guidelines
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Using common classifications: NACE(rev1) , ISCO-88(COM), ISCED, NUTS
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Recording the same set of characteristics in each country.
All definitions apply to persons living in private households; persons carrying out military service are not included.
Note that wage data is not included in EU-LFS, and should not be listed as a variable in project applications (access procedures below).
Core data: 1983 to 2010
Ad hoc modules: 1999, and 2002-2009
Data updated on server: February 2012
Variables' coverage may vary due to differences between national statistical agencies.
A description of EU-LFS is available on this Eurostat EU-LFS page .
Additional information – including notes on data exceptions – is provided on the CIRCA site .
GESIS (Leibnitz/Mannheim) provides SPSS routines to convert the anonymised data from the 2008 and 2009 release formatted in CSV into SAV (last update 2012-01).
Access to this data is restricted to current EUI members who have completed the registration procedures, as follows:
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Very Important Notice: Current EUI members who wish to use EU-LFS data must first send a project proposal (as a Word or TextPad attachment) to
econlibrary@eui.eu . This is forwarded to Eurostat. The proposal should include the scholar's name, academic status (eg. PhD Researcher, Professor, Fellow &c.), name of Supervisor (where applicable) and an outline of the research project (approx one page). Eurostat requests that the proposal include: (a) Country and year data required; (b) Variables and breakdowns required; (c) Short description of methodology. Further details on the data set and variables – as well as on the anonymisation criteria – can be found under point 9 (database description) on
this LFS page .
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The application is sent to Eurostat by the EUI Economics & Statistics Information Specialist. Note that the total application process can take up to two months – due to Eurostat's clearing procedures with national statistical agencies.
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If the project proposal is accepted by Eurostat, the EUI data applicant must complete the online
EUI Data Registration Form (selecting 'EU-LFS' from the dropdown menu).
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The data applicant must then sign two forms at the Library Economics Office: (i) the EUI 'Conditions of Use' agreement and (ii) the Eurostat 'Confidentiality Declaration.'
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The user then receives instructions on how to access the data via secured server.
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NOTE: Due to the large size of EU-LFS files, the data is available on the server in compressed (ZIP) format. It is necessary to use 7-Zip – available on all EUI desktops – to extract the data.
Member State statistical agencies and Eurostat reserve the right to decline access to EU-LFS data.
The data set is not available to short-term visitors at the EUI Library.
Before using the data, read the 'Data Access and Use' section (p.5) of this Eurostat PDF .
Access to EU-SILC micro data from Eurostat is also available at the EUI.
For further EUI statistical resources on Europe, the EU and the Eurozone please consult this EUI Library directory .
Data and documentation are presented on the secured server in dossiers:
- Core Data: quarterly files
- Core Data: yearly files
- Ad hoc modules
- Special files
- Documentation
Contact: Thomas Bourke at econlibrary@eui.eu