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Pre-filled example:

The EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) is the largest European household sample survey. Its main statistical objective is to classify the population of working age (15 years and over) into three mutually exclusive and exhaustive groups: employed persons, unemployed persons, which together represent the ‘labour force’, and the people outside the labour force.

Country can modify or add more information.

Population concept 

Specific population subgroups

Primary/secondary students

Tertiary students

People working out of family home for an extended period for the purpose of work

People working away from family home but returning for weekends

Children alternating two places of residence

 Usual residence (12 months)

 Family home

 Family home

 Family home

(European concept or National proxy concept used) List all concepts where any divergences can be found

Is there any divergence between the national and European concepts for the following characteristics?

(Y/N)

Give a description of difference and provide an assessment of the impact of the divergence on the statistics

Definition of resident population (*)

 N

NA

Identification of the main job (*)

 N

NA

Employment

 N

NA

Unemployment

 N

NA

Description of difference in concept

Description of difference in measurement

Give an assessment of the effects of the differences

Give references to description of differences

Total employment

Differences in concepts between LFS and National Accounts (NA) are due to the different purposes of the two estimates. The first is aimed at describing the labour market conditions; the second at estimating the amount of labour input as productive factor underlying GDP. Employment in NA refers to “domestic employment” whereas LFS definition of employment is more similar to the idea of “national employment”.
NA estimates can be described starting from the LFS figures, adding: a) non resident foreign workers present on the national territory for a period longer than one year, but not included in population registers; b) foreign seasonal workers (in the country for a period less than one year) not included in population registers; c) members of the country’s armed force who are abroad; d) staff of national embassies located abroad; e) resident workers permanently living in collective households; f) non-resident cross-border workers working in resident establishments; g) unpaid trainees working for national firms; h) employed with an age of less than 15 years; i) irregular workers not included in the LFS, and subtracting resident cross-border workers working abroad; j) since September 2014, in accordance with the definitions of the new European System of Accounts (Esa 2010 - Regulation n. 549/2013), the NA estimate includes illegal activities and the relative employment. In addition to domestic employment, National accounts estimate jobs, worked hours and full-time equivalent Labour Units (in italian ULA: Unità di LAvoro) starting from the total amount of worked hours and considering the per capita hours worked by a full-time individual (by domain).

  To produce their estimates NA collect and process information from different sources of various nature: household and business surveys, statistical registers, and administrative sources. 

Year 2023 in thousands:
LFS (employment): 23,580
NA (employment): 26,096
NA (ULA): 24,916

 Details on the methodology used by the National Account to estimate employment and the comparison with LFS have been provided in  Chapter 7 of the Italy- Gross National income inventory (ESA 2010) – December 2021. 

Total employment by NACE

 Business data relating to Italian businesses in the fields of industry and services arise from two integrated sources: (i) a sample survey on medium and small enterprises and (ii) a census survey on enterprises having 100 workers and more. Further ISTAT’s surveys focus on businesses in the field of agriculture. In any case, both LFS and business surveys use the same classification of economic activity, referring to NACE

UNA

UNA

UNA

Number of hours worked

 LFS collects individual information on the number of hours actually and usually worked. Business surveys collect information on firm's total amount of hours (thus considering only regular worked hours for employees)

UNA

Negligible in terms of weekly hours

UNA

Which is the use of LFS data for National Account Data?   

Country uses LFS as the only source for employment in national accounts.

Country uses mainly LFS, but replacing it in a few industries (or labour status), on a case-by-case basis

Country doesn’t make use of LFS, or makes minimal use of it

Country combines sources for labour supply and demand giving precedence to labour supply sources (i.e. LFS)

Country combines sources for labour supply and demand not giving precedence to any labour side

Country combines sources for

labour supply and demand

giving precedence to labour

demand sources (i.e. employ-

ment registers and/or enterprise

surveys)

N

N

N

Y

N

N

Description of difference in concept

Description of difference in measurement

Give an assessment of the effects of the differences

Give references to description of differences

Total employment

Description of difference in concept Description of difference in measurement Give an assessment of the effects of the differences Give references to description of differences
Total employment LFS estimates the number of employed persons, both in regular or irregular jobs, whatever the number of jobs they have. Business statistics consider the number of regular jobs i.e. complying with tax and social security legislation and which can therefore be traced by business surveys, institutional and administrative sources. UNA Due to the number of different sources used by business statistics’ surveys and to the relevant differences in concepts and measures with those used in Italian LFS, no comparisons between LFS and business statistics’ data have been done up to now. UNA
Total employment by NACE Business data relating to Italian businesses in the fields of industry and services arise from two integrated sources: (i) a sample survey on medium and small enterprises and (ii) a census survey on enterprises having 100 workers and more. Further ISTAT’s surveys focus on businesses in the field of agriculture. In any case, both LFS and business surveys use the same classification of economic activity, referring to NACE UNA See above UNA
Number of hours worked LFS collects individual information on the number of hours actually and usually worked. Business surveys collect information on firm's total amount of hours (thus considering only regular worked hours for employees) UNA See above UNA

 UNA

   Due to the number of different sources used by business statistics’ surveys and to the relevant differences in concepts and measures with those used in Italian LFS, no comparisons between LFS and business statistics’ data have been done up to now.

  UNA

Total employment by NACE

  Business data relating to Italian businesses in the fields of industry and services arise from two integrated sources: (i) a sample survey on medium and small enterprises and (ii) a census survey on enterprises having 100 workers and more. Further ISTAT’s surveys focus on businesses in the field of agriculture. In any case, both LFS and business surveys use the same classification of economic activity, referring to NACE

 UNA

 See above

 UNA

Number of hours worked

Description of difference in concept Description of difference in measurement Give an assessment of the effects of the differences Give references to description of differences
Total employment LFS estimates the number of employed persons, both in regular or irregular jobs, whatever the number of jobs they have. Business statistics consider the number of regular jobs i.e. complying with tax and social security legislation and which can therefore be traced by business surveys, institutional and administrative sources. UNA Due to the number of different sources used by business statistics’ surveys and to the relevant differences in concepts and measures with those used in Italian LFS, no comparisons between LFS and business statistics’ data have been done up to now. UNA
Total employment by NACE Business data relating to Italian businesses in the fields of industry and services arise from two integrated sources: (i) a sample survey on medium and small enterprises and (ii) a census survey on enterprises having 100 workers and more. Further ISTAT’s surveys focus on businesses in the field of agriculture. In any case, both LFS and business surveys use the same classification of economic activity, referring to NACE UNA See above UNA
Number of hours worked LFS collects individual information on the number of hours actually and usually worked. Business surveys collect information on firm's total amount of hours (thus considering only regular worked hours for employees) UNA See above UNA

 UNA

 See above

 UNA

Description of difference in concept

Description of difference in measurement

Give references to description of differences

  Differences between Public Employment Services (in Italian "Servizi Pubblici per l'Impiego" SPI) and LFS data concern: (1) LFS excludes from unemployment all individuals who have any kind of job, whereas SPI include individuals who have temporary jobs or salaries below a given amount; (2) the immediate availability for a job required by LFS is based on self declarations. On the contrary, SPI exclude individuals who miss scheduled encounters or refuse a fair job offer; (3) in LFS registration at SPI in order to find a job is only one of the possible active search actions.

 At the moment, data from administrative sources are not available

 The specification of the concept of unemployment adopted by the Public Service for Employment (SPI) is provided by the Legislative Decree no.181/2000 as amended by the Decree Law no.297/2002 containing provisions to facilitate the meet of supply and demand. LFS follows the Commission Regulation 1897/2000.

Give an assessment of the effects of the differences

Overall effect

Men under 25 years

Men 25 years and over

Women under 25 years

Women 25 years and over

Regional distribution (NUTS-3)

UNA

UNA

UNA

UNA

UNA

UNA

Sampling design (scheme; simple random sample, two stage stratified sample, etc.)

Base used for the sample (sampling frame) 

Last update of the sampling frame (continuously updated or date of the last update)

Primary sampling unit (PSU) 

 Final sampling unit (FSU)

Date of sample selection

 The sample design is a two stage sampling with stratification of the primary units.

Resident population and households register 

The sample design is a two stage sampling with stratification of the primary units. Resident population and households register The sampling frame is continuously updated by the Italian municipalities, but it is delivered to Istat once per year, updated at the 1st January of the year. The sample selection is made once per year, during spring.
The yearly sample is composed by households which belong to 16 rotation groups (4 waves X 4 quarters = 16 rotation groups).
The sample selected from the last updated available frame is gradually introduced every year starting from the first wave of the third quarter, till the second quarter of the following year.

 Municipalities

 Household March 2022

Only for countries using a subsample for yearly variables

 Wave(s) for the subsample

 Are the 30 totals for ILO labour status (employment, unemployment and inactivity) by sex (males and females) and age groups (15-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55+) between the annual average of quarterly estimates and the yearly estimates from the subsample all consistent? (Ref.: Commission Reg. 2019/2240) (Y/N)

If not please list deviations

List of yearly variables for which the wave approach is used (Ref.: Commission Reg. 2019/2240, Annex I)

 2

 Y

NA

NA

Data collection methods: brief description

Use of dependent interviewing (Y/N)?

In case of Computer Assisted Methods adoption for data collection, could you please indicate which software is used?

The information is collected through computer assisted personal (CAPI) or telephonic (CATI) interviews, carried out by professional interviewers.
CAPI mode is usually used for the 1st wave, whereas CATI mode is usually used for later waves. Households without a telephone and non-Italian households are interviewed always by CAPI mode.
In consideration of the evolution of the pandemic in Italy and the restrictive measures imposed on personal contacts, the telephone method was the prevailing method at least for the first few months of the year. From the point of view of CAPI data collection, until the end of 2022, in order to allow a gradual return to normality, the interviewer could also carry out the interview by telephone, if requested by the household and after acquiring a telephone number where the interview could be carried out.

 Y

Blaise for CAPI interview
Converso for CATI interview

Are any LFS data collected from registers (Y/N)?

If Yes, please indicate which

registers.

 Y

ONLY INCGROSS, FROM THE LABOUR STATISTICAL REGISTER

Brief description of the method of calculating the quarterly core weights

Is the sample population in private households expanded to the reference population in private households? (Y/N)

If No, please explain which population is used as reference population

Gender is used in weighting (Y/N)

Which age groups are used in the weighting (e.g., 0-14, 15-19, ..., 70-74, 75+)?

Which regional breakdown is used in the weighting (e.g. NUTS 3)?

Other weighting dimensions

The calibration estimator is used to obtain LFS estimates. Grossing weights are determined as follows:
1. Firstly, initial weights are obtained as the inverse of the inclusion probabilities of any household in the sample.
2. Then, correction factors for households non-response are worked out as the reciprocal of the response ratios (computed for specific kind of households and territorial domains). Intermediate weights corrected for non-response are then computed multiplying initial weights by these correction factors.
3. Then, starting from intermediate weights, final grossing weights are obtained solving a minimization problem under constraints. The function to be minimised is a distance between final and intermediate weights; the constraints regard the estimates of some auxiliary variables that have to be equal to the totals in the reference population derived by external sources (main constraints are population by gender and 14 5-year age groups at NUTS-2 leve
and population by gender and 5 age groups of different width at NUTS-3 level). Final weights ensure that all members of a given household have the same weight.
Through the calibration estimator, applying final grossing weights, the sample reproduces the same distribution of the population according to the chosen auxiliary variables.
Grossing weights are computed on quarterly basis, whereas annual estimates are calculated as averages of quarterly estimates.
On January 2021 new population figures were available for the period 2011-2021, according to the results of the 2018 Population continous Census. Consequently LFS weights are coherent with IT Census starting from 2021Q1.

 Y

 NA

 Y

 17 5-year age groups (0-14, 15-19, ..., 85-89, 90+ ) at NUTS2 level and 5 age groups of different width at NUTS3 level 

 NUTS3 

 Monthly population by gender (at NUTS2), number of households by wave (at NUTS2), foreigner population (Male, Female, EU and Not EU at NUTS2), population in metropolitan areas (municipalities with resident population over than 250 thousands units) by gender and 5 age groups

Brief description of the method of calculating the yearly weights (please indicate if subsampling is applied to survey yearly variables)

Gender is used in weighting (Y/N)

Which age groups are used in the weighting (e.g., 0-14, 15-19, ..., 70-74, 75+)?

Which regional breakdown is used in the weighting (e.g. NUTS3)?

Other weighting dimensions

 Average of the quarterly core weights. No subsampling is applyed to provide  yearly estimates

 Y

 Same as Quartely weights

 Same as Quartely weights

 Same as Quartely weights

Brief description of the method of calculating the weights for households

Any external reference for number of households etc.?

Which factors at household level are used in the weighting (number of households, household size, household composition, etc.)

Which factors at individual level are used in the weighting (gender, age, regional breakdown etc.)?

Are the household weights identical for all household members? (Y/N)

 The Quarterly core weights is applyed to produce households estimates. The adopted weighting scheme ensures the coherence 

 Resident population and households register.

 Number of households

 See quarterly core weights

 Y

Do you apply any seasonal adjustment to the LFS Series? (Y/N)

If Yes, is your adopted methodology compliant with the ESS guidelines on seasonal adjustment? (ref. ESS guidelines on seasonal adjustment - Products Manuals and Guidelines - Eurostat (europa.eu) (Y/N)

If Yes, are you compliant with the Eurostat/ECB recommendation on Jdemetra+ as software for conducting seasonal adjustment of official statistics. (ref. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/ess/-/jdemetra-officially-recommended-as-software-for-the-seasonal-adjustment-of-official-statistics) (Y/N)

If Not, please provide a description of the used methods and tools

 Y

 Y

 Y

 NA