Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

Unit F3: Labour market

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The indicators of 'population in jobless households' are calculated with special methods and periodicity which justify the present page. The are published in the section 'LFS main indicators', which is a collection of the main statistics on the labour market. 'Population in jobless households' is also a Structural Indicator and a Sustainable Development Indicator.

The concepts and definitions used in the LFS follow the guidelines of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

As a general rule the indicator 'population in jobless households' covers all economic sectors.

The indicators of 'population in jobless households' refer to:

- children aged 0-17 who are living in households where no-one works, as a share of children aged 0-17 in the total population.

- adults aged 18 - 59 who are living in households where no-one works, as a share of adults aged 18-59 in the total population.. This share is given both for the two sexes pooled and by sex. Students aged 18 -24 who live in households composed solely of students of the same age class are not counted in either numerator or denominator.

Jobless households are households where no member is in employment, i.e. all members are either unemployed or inactive.

Definitions follow the decision taken at the Laeken European Council of December 2001 but revised in 2003.

Both the numerators and the denominators come from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS). The definitions apply to persons living in private households. Persons carrying out obligatory military service are not included.

Number of Persons.

The EU-LFS covers persons living in private households. Persons living in collective households (halls of residence, medical care establishments, religious institutions, collective workers' accommodation, hostels, etc) and persons carrying out obligatory military service are not included. Only the employment of the residents in the country is considered. All sectors of the economy are covered.

European Union, Euro area, EU Member States, European Economic Area and Candidate countries. Data for Cyprus refer only to the areas of Cyprus controlled by the Government of the Republic of Cyprus. Since 2014, data for France include also the French overseas departments (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, La Réunion), with the exception of Mayotte.

Time series are available from 1992 onwards for EU-15 (depending on the year of EU entry for each country), and progressively from 1996 onwards for new Member States, the European Economic Area and some of the Candidate countries (Croatia and Turkey). No comparable data are available for Sweden.

Not applicable.

Percentage of persons.

Indicators are annual but the data source is a quarterly survey. 

The EU-LFS is designed as a continuous quarterly survey with interviews spread uniformly over all weeks of a quarter. The reference week starts on Monday and ends on Sunday. From 2004, in all countries providing quarterly data, the quarterly sample is spread uniformly over all weeks of the quarter.

The reference quarter is the calendar quarter except for Ireland and the United Kingdom (until 2006), which use the seasonal quarter (Dec-Feb, Mar-May, Jun-Aug, Sep-Nov).

Annual results are calculated averaging quarterly data.

The EU-LFS is based on European legislation since 1973. It's implementation is governed by legislative acts of the Council and Parliament, as well as of the Commission. The principal legal act is the Council Regulation (EC) No. 577/98. The implementation rules are specified in the successive Commission regulations. This is the main regulation with provisions on design, survey characteristics and decision making processes. For more details on the regulations, please consult EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) - Main features and legal basis.

Not applicable

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

EU-LFS microdata as received by Eurostat from the national statistical institutes does not contain any administrative information such as names or addresses that would allow direct identification. Access to this microdata is nevertheless strictly controlled and limited to specified Eurostat staff. After data treatment, records are aggregated for all further use.

The release of EU LFS data is not bound by an advance release calendar. The data are published approximately 11 months after the end of the reference year.

Not applicable.

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

Annual.

Not applicable.

Being a Structural Indicator, the data are published in the statistical annex of the Lisbon Strategy Annual Progress report.

The results are also published in several social publications of the European Commission (e.g. The Social Situation in the European Union).

The indicator is also used in the main Eurostat's publications, e.g. Yearbook, etc.

Please consult free data on-line or address to ESTAT-LFS-USER-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu

Micro-data are not applicable to 'LFS main indicators' results, but EU-LFS anonymised microdata are available for research purposes. Please refer to access to microdata.

See: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

For a detailed description of methods and concepts used, as well as for other documents related to the EU-LFS, please consult the  EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) webpage.

The EU-LFS disseminates also publications on the methodology of the survey. For more information please consult: Quality reporting.

see section 11.1. 

Please refer to the ESMS page on 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)' (see link below in section 'related metadata').

The overall quality is considered as high. The indicator uses the best data sources available. The source data are validated by the Member States. The estimation method was improved in 2008. The estimation method is discussed with experts from Member States and policymakers.

Population in jobless households is a main indicator of social exclusion related to joblessness.

The main indicators stemming from the EU-LFS are used for monitoring and measurement of core employment policy objectives of the Community. These targets were complemented by the Employment Guidelines 2003/2004 and the 2005/2008 Integrated Guidelines as well as by later Council conclusions. This indicator is also a Structural Indicator and a Sustainable Development Indicator.

Eurostat does not carry out satisfaction survey targeted at users of labour markets statistics. All new requests for labour market statistics are subject to scrutiny by the national experts and representatives of the NSIs and in particular for major topics of interest, for social research the instrument of ad hoc modules is used. The main institutional users other than the Commission are also known to the unit for Labour Market Statistics. Many of them are frequently consulted on various aspects of development and dissemination of labour force statistics.

European aggregates (EU 27) are available from 2000 onwards.

Country data completeness depends from country to country. Even if otherwise adhering to the EU-regulations on the EU-LFS, countries do not always provide data for all the variables. In particular, the EU-LFS variables on household composition are critical to calculate the indicator, some countries do not collect those variables or use different collection methods.

The overall accuracy is considered as high. The LFS covers persons living in private households to ensure a comparable coverage for all countries. The sampling designs in the LFS are chosen on a country by country basis (sampling rates per quarter vary between less than 1.5% and 3.5%, but the average for EU-LFS is 0.44% in 2007). Most of the National Statistical Institutes employ multi-staged stratified random sample design, especially those that do not have central population registers available.

The LFS, like all surveys, is based upon a sample of the population. The results are therefore subject to the usual types of errors associated with random sampling. Based on the sample size and design in the various Member States, Eurostat implements basic guidelines intended to avoid publication of figures that are too small to be reliable or to give warning of the unreliability of the figures. For information on EU-LFS data revisions, please consult EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) - Data and publication - publication guidelines and thresholds. 

Please refer to the ESMS page on 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)' (see link below in section 'related metadata').

Please refer to the ESMS page on 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)' (see link below in section 'related metadata).

Data are released approximately 11 months after the end of the reference year.

Not available

Comparability across countries is considered as high.  It is ensured by the use of a common calculation method and a harmonised data source. EU-LFS is harmonised through a common Council regulation ((EC) No 577/98), common variable definition (Commission Regulation (EC) No 430/2005), common explanatory notes (The European Union Labour Force Survey. Methods and definitions - 2001) and common regulation (Commission Regulation (EC) No 1897/2000) regarding the definition of unemployment and the twelve principles of questionnaire.

Comparability across countries is considered as high. From 2006 onwards, Commission Regulation (EC) No 430/2005 of 15 March 2005 regulates the codification to be used for data transmission and the use of a sub-sample for the collection of data on structural variables (OJ No L 71/36). As for the Participating Countries, main changes referred either to the mode of data collection or to adaptations of the questionnaire.

Not applicable; there is no alternative source to calculate the same indicator with the same definitions (i.e. using ILO labour status)

The indicators in 'population in jobless households' use EU-LFS as data input, in particular from the data collection 'LFS main indicators'. It is coherent with it by construction.

Not available

The indicators 'population in jobless households' are estimated once a year. The estimation involves the re-calculation of previous years. Previously released estimates are revised if the data under 'LFS main indicators' have been revised since the previous years. LFS revisions are not expected, unless major errors are identified in the data delivered or in their processing. Exceptional revisions may happen e.g. after new estimates of population from a population census.

For information on EU-LFS data revisions, please consult EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) - Data and publication. 

The EU-LFS (see link employ_esms at the bottom of this page) is the main source for the data. In case of missing quarterly data, annual results and EU aggregates are estimated by using adjusted quarterly national labour force survey data or interpolations of the EU Labour Force Survey data with reference to the available quarter(s). For detailed information, please consult the EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) webpage.

The EU-LFS is a rotating random sample survey of persons in private households.  It is organised in thirteen modules, covering their demographic background, labour status, employment characteristics of the main job, hours worked, employment characteristics of the second job, time-related underemployment, search for employment, education and training, previous work experience of persons not in employment, situation one year before the survey, main labour status, income, and technical items relating to the interview. For details see Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 of 9 March 1998 on the organisation of a labour force sample survey in the Community (OJ No L 77/3)

Since early 2000's, the survey has quarterly periodicity, previously it was an annual survey run in spring.

Data are acquired by interviewing the sampled individuals directly. Four modes of data collection exist for the EU-LFS: personal visits, telephone interviews, web and self-administered questionnaires.

For more information please consult: Quality reporting.

Prior to the dissemination of EU-LFS national data, Eurostat checks the quality and consistency of data transmitted by National Statistical Institutes. Eurostat calculates LFS results and they are then validated by the Member States. Afterwards they can be published.

In addition, a special annual validation is in place for EU-LFS data used for the indicators 'population in jobless households'. Member States validate input data for the indicators and are informed of the resulting value.

The indicators for the Member States are calculated first, separately numerator and denominator. EU LFS microdata is used for this purpose. Microdata allow identifying persons living in the same household, identifying households where no one works, and counting population in those households. Households composed solely of students are excluded both from numeration and denominator. Those students are identified on the basis of participation in regular education only (EU-LFS variable EDUCSTAT, including students on holidays).

Annual results are calculated from quarterly data. In case of missing data for some quarters Eurostat imputes a value based on interpolation of existing quarters.

The European aggregates are subsequently compiled by summing country data in numerator and denominator, and finally the indicator percentage is calculated. The EU and Euro area aggregates are provided using the closest available year result in case of missing country data.

In case of missing quarterly LFS data, annual results are estimated by using adjusted quarterly national labour force survey data or interpolations of the EU Labour Force Survey data with reference to the available quarter(s).  For detailed information, please consult the EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) webpage.