Swiss Federal Statistical Office

Labour Force section

Espace de l'Europe 10

CH-2000 Neuchâtel

16 April 2025

16 April 2025

16 April 2025

Eurostat website - Classifications.

The survey population consists of all persons living in private households aged 15 years and older.

The SFLS covers only the permanent resident population in Switzerland and excludes some categories of foreign persons. The permanent resident population includes all persons who officially reside in Switzerland for the entire year. Swiss citizens, foreign citizens holding a permanent residence permit or a residence permit valid for at least one year fall into this category.

The SLFS is conducted as a household/person survey; i.e. only one person per household is selected for the interview. 

Questions relating to labour status are put to all persons aged 15 to 89.

BFS website - agenda.

Housekeeping (legal residence)

Housekeeping (legal residence): Set of persons sharing the same registered main residence (information extracted from the population register at the moment of sampling and updated during the interview). This definition of household is identical to the one applied in the Swiss Census.

(Intended or actual) usual residence in the country for a continuous period of at least 12 months

The SLFS is conducted as a household/person survey, i.e. only one person per household is selected for the interview. 

The survey population consists of all persons living in private households aged 15 years and older. The SFLS covers only the permanent resident population in Switzerland and excludes some categories of foreign persons. The permanent resident population includes all persons who officially reside in Switzerland for the entire year. Swiss citizens, foreign citizens holding a permanent residence permit or a residence permit valid for at least one year fall into this category.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

Yearly data available from 1991 on, quarterly data available from 2010 on.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

The SLFS produces different indicators with different measures:

• Numbers
• Percentages

Quarter and year

EU level:

The EU-LFS is based on European legislation since 1973. The principal legal acts, currently in force, are the Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 establishing a common framework for European social statistics, the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/256 establishing a multiannual rolling planning, the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2181 regarding items common to several datasets, and the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2240 which specifies the implementation rules, technical items and contents of the EU-LFS.

National level:

The SLFS is conducted in accordance with the Ordinance on the Conduct of Statistical Surveys of June 30, 1993 (SR 431.012.1). The appendix to this ordinance defines the name, purpose, subject, survey timing and method.

The SFSO makes available to the Commission (Eurostat) the data and metadata required under the Regulation 2019/2240 using the statistical data and metadata exchange standards specified by the Commission (Eurostat) and the Single Entry Point.
The Commission (Eurostat) shall, in cooperation with Member States, publish the aggregated data on the Commission (Eurostat) website, in a user‐friendly way, as soon as possible and within six months of the transmission deadline for annual and infra‐annual data collection.

EU level:

Regulation (EU) No 557/2013 17 June 2013 as regards access to confidential data for scientific purposes and repealing Commission Regulation (EC) No 831/2002. It implements the Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European Statistics, which sets criteria for confidentiality of data.

National level:

The ordinance on the Conduct of Statistical Surveys of June 30, 1993 (SR 431.012.1) regulates confidentiality and due diligence, as well as data protection. In particular, it stipulates that information from surveys such as the SLFS may only be used for statistical purposes, that the results of surveys may only be published or made accessible in a form that excludes any identification of the persons and households surveyed, and that personal records and survey documents must be destroyed as soon as they are no longer needed for data entry, completion and control.

National microdatasets contain only the year of birth of each respondent but not the exact date of birth nor a variable such as PASSBIR. Furthermore, the commune of residence is not made available in case it has fewer than 5000 residents. Administrative identifiers, interconnecting statistical identifiers and any other identification data is removed.

EU level:

(1) the Member States shall transmit pre‐checked microdata without direct identifiers, according to the following two‐step procedure:

• during the first three years of implementation of this Regulation, as provided for in Article 11(4):
  • for quarterly data: within ten weeks of the end of the reference period,
  • for other data: by 31 March of the following year;
• from the fourth year of implementation as follows:
  • for quarterly data: within eight weeks of the end of the reference period,
  • for other data regularly transmitted: by 15 March of the following year,
  • for other data concerning ad‐hoc subjects: by 31 March of the following year.

Where those deadlines fall on a Saturday or Sunday, the effective deadline shall be the following Monday. The detailed topic income from work may be transmitted to the Commission (Eurostat) within fifteen months of the end of the reference period.

(2) The Member States shall transmit aggregated results for the compilation of monthly unemployment statistics within 25 days of the reference or calendar month, as appropriate. If the data are transmitted in accordance with the ILO definition, that deadline may be extended to 27 days.

National level:

In parallel to the above mentionned transmission of microdata to Eurostat, the SFSO provides quarterly and yearly sets of anonymised microdata to its clients at the national level. Quarterly datasets are made available approximately 8 weeks after the end of the reference quarter, the yearly datasets (including the eight-yearly and ad-hoc modules) approximately 4 months after the end of the reference year.

BFS website - agenda.

EU level:

European social statistics are provided on the basis of equal treatment of all types of users, such as policy‐ makers, public administrations, researchers, trade unions, students, civil society representatives including non‐ governmental organisations, and citizens, which can access statistics freely and easily through Commission (Eurostat) databases on its website and in its publications.

National level:

Standard tables for free access are published on the NSI's website. Furthermore, national micordata sets are available under the following conditions: 

• use for scientific means only
• no further disclosure to third parties
• no data linking
• data protection
• destruction of the data after the completion of the research project for which the data have been accessed
• delivery costs charged to the data users

Results are disseminated to all users at the same time.

First release, quarterly (4x), yearly (1x), ad hoc module results (1x).

The SFSO issues a press release upon each data publication: SLFS Publcations and findings.

The SFSO regularly publishes in-depth labour market analyses based on SLFS data: SLFS Publcations and findings.

BFS website.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

SLFS Fact sheet
SLFS Methodology (Available only in German and French and partially outdated)

Aggregated data are available to the public, microdata are available to researchers.

Questionnaire, List of national variables, Codebook, and methodological explanations are available on the SFSO's website.
Furthermore, a detailed user manual is available to microdata users. 

The SFSO offers further assistance via phone (+41 584 63 64 00) or email (info.arbeit@bfs.admin.ch).

Anonymized microdata are available under certain restrictions (cf. micro-data confidentiality rules in 7).

Y

Anyone signing a contract pertaining to the use of the data is entitled to access SLFS microdata.

Use for scientific means only. No further disclosure to third parties. No data linking. Data protection. Destruction of the data after the completion of the research project for which the data have been accessed.

A detailed user manual is available to microdata users. 

The SFSO offers further assistance via phone (+41 584 63 64 00) or email (info.arbeit@bfs.admin.ch).

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

See below.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

SLFS Fact sheet
SLFS Methodology (Available only in German and French and partially outdated)

SFSO Quality commitment

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

There are currently about 100 contracts for the use of micro-data for studies of all kind (universities, research institutes, other federal agencies, regional statistical institutes). Furthermore, the SLFS is regularly used to handle questions and/or motions of the Swiss federal parliament.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

All content requirements are met.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

No publication of results below level NUTS2, except for some cantons that are participating and increasing the sample size for their territory

Commune (municipality)

NUTS 2 (no publication below this level, except for some cantons that are participating and increasing the sample size for their territory)

NUTS 3 (on demand, researchers can access the micro-data containing all regional information down to the lowest possible level) 

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

Non-probability sampling is used.

The sampling error ist expressed in terms of confidence intervals.

References to Annex File.

References to Annex File.

Employment rate = number of employed persons / N, where N is the size of the population of persons aged 15-74 and N is fixed due to the calibration;
Thus: Variance of employment rate = variance of number of employed persons / N²;
And: CV(employment rate) = (variance of number of employed persons)^1/2 / N * (N / number of employed persons)

SAS (proc means, proc glm)

Purpose-made method that takes into account the effect of calibration in the estimation of variance (based on the formula introduced by Deville in Caron et al. (1998)^(**). 

(**) Caron, N., Deville, J. & Sautory, O. (1998). Estimation de données issues d’enquêtes : document méthodologique sur le logiciel POULPE. Tech. Rep. 9806, INSEE, Paris.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

References to Annex File.

See in the 13.3.1. Coverage error section in Annex.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

See in the 13.3.1. Coverage error section in Annex.

References to Annex File.

 See below.

References to Annex File.

References to Annex File.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

See below.

References to Annex File.

References to Annex File.

References to Annex File.

References to Annex File.

The item non-response rate for a given variable is defined as the ratio between in-scope (eligible) units that have not responded and in-scope (eligible) units that are required to respondto the particular item.

References to Annex File.

References to Annex File.

References to Annex File.

There are no imputations in the SLFS. INCGROSS is the only variable edited during data processing.

References to Annex File.

References to Annex File.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

References to Annex File.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

All quarterly releases in the period covered by the present report were delivered in due time. As an exception, the yearly microdata were delivered with a delay of 14 weeks, due to an encompassing revision.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

There are no significant problems of comparability between Switzerland's regions.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

During the period covered by the present report, there have been no methodological or data-related changes affecting comparability of the SLFS data.

Yearly SLFS data are available since 2001, quarterly SLFS data are available since 2010Q1. There are no substantial breaks in time series affecting the entire set of variables.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

References to Annex File.

References to Annex File.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

References to Annex File.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

In 2021, both the cost of the survey and the burden on respondents were significantly reduced by introducing CAWI as an alternative to CATI.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

References to Annex File.

The SLFS data are revised at irregular intervals, according to necessity.

Y

N

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

The SLFS is a person survey. However, part of the information on person and household characteristics, on characteristics of the local unit in which the respondent works, as well as on the registration at a public employment service, is derived from register data (cf. 18.3.2. for more detail).

References to Annex File.

References to Annex File.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

References to Annex File.

References to Annex File.

References to Annex File.

Member States shall transmit to the Commission (Eurostat) quarterly and annual datasets with pre-checked microdata that comply with validation rules according to the specification of variables for their coding and filter conditions set out in Annex I of the Regulation 2019/2240. Member States and the Commission shall agree on additional validation rules that shall be fulfilled as a condition for transmitted data to be accepted.

Arithmetic and qualitative controls are used in the validation process, including comparison with other data. Before data dissemination, the internal coherence of the data is checked.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.

References to Annex File.

References to Annex File.

Not requested for the LFS quality report.