Glossary:Labour force survey (LFS)

A labour force survey, abbreviated as LFS, is an inquiry directed to households, designed to obtain information on the labour market and related issues through a series of personal interviews.

The European Union (EU) LFS covers all citizens living in private households and excludes those in collective households, such as boarding houses, residence halls and hospitals. The definitions used are common to all EU Member States and are based on international recommendations by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The survey is conducted in European countries by National Statistical Institutes as the "Labour Force Survey".

Further information

• EU labour force survey - online publication
• Employment and unemployment (LFS) (Eurostat website dedicated section)
• Employment and unemployment (Labour Force Survey) (ESMS metadata file — employ_esms)
• Labour force survey in the EU, candidate and EFTA countries - Main characteristics of national surveys, 2018 (publication)
• EU-LFS Quality reporting (publication)

Related concepts

• Employed person
• Labour cost survey (LCS)
• Structure of earnings survey (SES)

Statistical data

• Labour market (theme navigation page)