DS Labour Force Survey (LFS) > Methodology > EN > REVAMP

Main concepts

The main statistical objective of the EU labour force survey (EU-LFS) is to provide descriptive and explanatory data on each of the 3 groups: employed, unemployed, people outside the labour force.

While demographic data are gathered for all population age groups, questions relating to labour market status are restricted to persons in the age group 15 years or older.

Different information is collected depending on the labour status of the people, whether they are employed, unemployed, or outside the labour force.

Typology to classify the statistical information (variables)

The chart outlines the scope of the EU-LFS, which is the total population living in private households. The information gathered to cover this scope consists of demographic and geographical variables as well as of the household composition. For the population aged 15 years and over living in these private households, information is collected on education, main status, citizenship and country of birth as well as labour status.

Main definitions

Employed persons comprise persons aged 15 to 89 (in completed years at the end of the reference week) who, during the reference week, were in one of the following categories:

  • persons who during the reference week worked for at least 1 hour for pay or profit, including contributing family workers;
  • persons with a job or business who were temporarily not at work during the reference week but had an attachment to their job, where the following groups have a job attachment:
    • persons not at work due to holidays, working time arrangements, sick leave, maternity or paternity leave;
    • persons in job-related training;
    • persons on parental leave, either receiving and/or being entitled to job-related income or benefits, or whose parental leave is expected to be 3 months or less;
    • seasonal workers during the off-season, where they continue to regularly perform tasks and duties for the job or business, excluding fulfilment of legal or administrative obligations;
    • persons temporarily not at work for other reasons where the expected duration of the absence is 3 months or less;
  • persons that produce agricultural goods whose main part is intended for sale or barter.

Unemployed persons comprise persons aged 15 to 74 (in completed years at the end of the reference week) who were:

  • not employed during the reference week according to the definition of employment described above; and
  • currently available for work, i.e. were available for paid employment or self-employment before the end of the 2 weeks following the reference week; and
  • actively seeking work, i.e. had either carried out activities in the four-week period ending with the reference week to seek paid employment or self-employment or found a job to start within a period of at most 3 months from the end of the reference week.

The labour force comprises employed and unemployed persons.

People outside the labour force are those classified neither as employed nor as unemployed.

Further reading

Overview of the concepts and other methodological issues:

Detailed information on the classifications, access to the explanatory notes, user guide, national questionnaires used to collect the data can be found in the article  EU labour force survey – documentation.

The most important developments of the EU-LFS are described in the article  EU labour force survey – development and history

Direct access to the explanatory notes, which contain detailed information on the definition of each variable: