Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

F3: Labour market and lifelong learning.

2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG

The EU has a longstanding commitment to promote work-life balance. This has resulted in targets that are set to improve the provision of childcare and thereby addressing the work-life balance challenges faced by parents and caregivers. In order to monitor and to investigate the progress in this area further, the implementation of the EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) ad hoc module 2018 on reconciliation between work and family life is of high importance.

The module is split in 3 submodules and includes 11 variables,.

Submodule 1: Care responsibilities

The first submodule aims to establish whether or not people, aged 18-64, have care responsibilities for children (<15 years) and other incapacitated relatives (15 years and older); to what extend they use professional childcare services and how childcare influence people’s employment.

This submodule includes 4 variables:

• CARERES: Existence of care responsibilities.
• CHCARUSE: Use of childcare services.
• CHCAROBS: Factors for not using childcare services.

• CHCAREFF: Effect of childcare responsibilities on employment.

Submodule 2: Flexibility of work arrangements

The aim of the second submodule is to investigate, in the context of reconciling work and family life, the degree of flexibility offered at work.

This submodule includes 3 variables:

• POSSTEND: Working time flexibility for care.
• POSORGWT: Flexibility for taking whole days off for care.

• WORKOBS: Main obstacle at work for reconciliation.                    

Submodule 3: Career breaks and parental leave

The third submodule targets (i) to identify career breaks in relation to the care of children (in particular parental leave) or other dependent persons and (ii) to investigate the duration of these particular career breaks.

This submodule includes 4 variables:

• STOPWORK: Career break for childcare;
• STOPLENG: Complete length of career breaks for childcare;
• PARLEAV: Use of family leave;
• DEREDSTP: Career break for incapacitated relatives.                                             

Detailed information on the relevant methodology of the ad hoc module (including the Commission regulation and explanatory notes) as well as documentation from each participating country (national questionnaires and interviewers instructions) can be found on EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) – ad hoc modules.

The EU-LFS results are produced in accordance with the relevant international classification systems. The main classifications used are ISCO-08 for occupation and ISCED 2011 for level of education. For more details please consult EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) - Methodology.

As a general rule the EU-LFS covers all economic sectors.

The full technical definitions adopted by the EU-LFS are available in employ_esms

The main concepts used in this module are:

Carers for incapacitated (from the age of 15) relatives are defined are defined as people who look after or provide help to relatives or the partner in need of care because they are sick, elderly or disabled. This also includes the relatives of the spouse/cohabiting partner and is irrespective of whether they live in the same household or not. Corresponding examples of caring tasks are personal care (e.g. dressing, washing, feeding), physical help (e.g. walking), support in health care, giving a ride, helping with paperwork or financial matters, domestic help (e.g. housework, laundry, groceries).

Own childrenmeans natural, adopted, foster and step-children. Legally seen foster children are no relatives; but taking over care responsibilities for them is binding and has a significant effect. Grandparents, who are legal guardians should also be considered as having care responsibilities. As care responsibilities are often shared in a family or household, questions on "own children" always include the ones of the spouse or cohabiting partner.

Persons.

For the submodule on care responsibilities and the submodule on career breaks and parental leave, the target population was all persons, aged 18-64.

For the submodule on flexibility of work arrangements, the target population was all employed persons who declare to have care responsibilities in the first question of the module (CARERES).

EU Member States, three EFTA Countries (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) and Turkey.

2018. Differences between countries: either second quarter, or first to fourth quarter, or second and fourth quarter.

Not applicable

Number of persons, expressed in thousands and percentages.

2018

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/2236 of 12 December 2016.

No mandate for international data sharing.

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').

LFS data for ad hoc modules are released after the end of the reference period once data processing and validation is terminated. This is not scheduled in a release calendar.

Not applicable

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

Not applicable

Ad hoc results are presented by a press release, together with a Statistics Explained article providing main results and metadata. Additionally, a series of tables is uploaded on Eurostat Database.

The evaluation report summarizes the main definitions and findings of the 2018 Labour Force Survey ad hoc module. To access the report, please consult EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) - ad-hoc modules.

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

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

Not applicable

For information on the 2017 Labour Force Survey ad hoc module, please consult EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) - ad hoc modules.

Please consult the evaluation report at EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) - ad hoc modules.

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').

A multiannual ad hoc module programme is agreed between Eurostat, the National Statistical Institutes and the main policy users (basically Commission services).

In order to measure and monitor for policy agendas purposes, DG Employment and a number of other Directorates of the Commission use EU-LFS results. Key users also include National Statistical Institutes (NSIs), international organisations, news agencies and researchers, who use EU-LFS data for international or intra-EU comparisons. Finally, LFS data are used by Eurostat for compiling detailed regional indicators, for estimates on current education and education levels, higher education and research, and for accurate estimates of labour input for national accounts. 

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').

Moreover, AHM data distribution by household composition is not available for Denmark and Sweden in table lfso_18creshc due to the lack of overlap between AHM and household variables.

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

For the sample size per country see evaluation report at EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) - ad hoc modules.

For non-sampling indicators per country see evaluation report at EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) - ad hoc modules.

The deadline for data transmissions to Eurostat was 31 March 2018. The release of EU-LFS data is not bound by an advance calendar of publication.

Three countries did not deliver data on time. Initial validation of the data sets was finished in May 2019, with the subsequent revision round finishing in July 2019.

For details on comparability see evaluation report at EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) - ad hoc modules.

Not applicable.

The 2005 and 2010 LFS ad hoc modules also covered this topic.

Published estimates stemming from the LFS are considered fully internally coherent, since arithmetic and accounting identities in the production of LFS datasets are observed.

Information on average interview lengths is available in the evaluation report - see LFS ad hoc modules.

LFS data for ad hoc modules, once released, are usually not revised, unless major errors are identified in the delivered or processed data. Exceptional revisions may happen e.g. after defining new estimates of population from a population census.

Not applicable.

The source of the data is the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS). 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. An additional so-called ad hoc module can be added to address specific subjects that change from year to year. 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).

Data collection is quarterly or annual.

The data is acquired by interviewing the sampled individuals directly. For the sample design and rotation patterns applied in each country, please consult the EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) webpage.

Prior to the dissemination of national data, LFS results are validated by the Member States and checked for plausibility by Eurostat.

Aggregate figures are calculated by adding up all the national data series.
Rates/Ratios are subsequently calculated from the data expressed in absolute values (i.e. number of persons).

No adjustments.

No notes.