Data Product Overview

GET https://public.richdataservices.com/rds/api/catalog/ca/pumf_lfs

This request returns the data product from the RDS API. It contains descriptive properties such as the data product name, label, description, a citation of the source of the data, provenance information, when the product was last updated, and any additional notes that may be needed to further understand the data or how to use it.

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status: OK

{"cacheLastCleared":"2020-11-17T03:56:10.8Z","cached":true,"citation":"Statistics Canada. 2020. Labour Force Survey, March 2020 [Canada] [public-use microdata file]. Ottawa, Ontario: Statistics Canada. Labour Statistics Division [producer and distributor].","description":"This public use microdata file contains non-aggregated data for a wide variety of variables collected from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The LFS collects monthly information on the labour market activities of Canada's working age population. This product is for users who prefer to do their own analysis by focusing on specific subgroups in the population or by cross-classifying variables that are not in our catalogued products. This file contains both personal characteristics for all individuals in the household and detailed labour force characteristics for household members 15 years of age and over. The personal characteristics include age, sex, marital status, educational attainment, and family characteristics. Detailed labour force characteristics include employment information such as class of worker, usual and actual hours of work, employee hourly and weekly wages, industry and occupation of current or most recent job, public and private sector, union            status, paid or unpaid overtime hours, job permanency, hours of work lost, job tenure, and unemployment information such as duration of unemployment, methods of job search and type of job sought. Labour force characteristics are also available for students during the school year and during the summer months as well as school attendance whether full or part-time and the type of institution. These and more are available by province and for the three largest census metropolitan areas (Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver). This is a monthly file, and is available going back to 1976.","id":"pumf_lfs","isPrivate":false,"keywords":["Income","Demographics","Employment","Hours of work","Industries","Labour Force Survey","Labour force","Occupations","PUMFFILE","Unemployment","Work"],"lastUpdate":"2021-02-22T21:03:06.945Z","name":"Labour Force Survey [Canada]","note":"\u003ch4\u003eSurvey\u003c/h4\u003eLabour Force Survey\u003cbr /\u003eThe Labour Force Survey provides estimates of employment and unemployment which are among the most timely and important measures of performance of the Canadian economy.\u003ch4\u003eSample Procedure\u003c/h4\u003eThe LFS uses a probability sample that is based on a stratified multi-stage design. Each province is divided into large geographic stratum. The first stage of sampling consists of selecting smaller geographic areas, called clusters, from within each stratum. The second stage of sampling consists of selecting dwellings from within each selected cluster. The LFS uses a rotating panel sample design so that selected dwellings remain in the LFS sample for six consecutive months. Each month about 1/6th of the LFS sampled dwellings are in their first month of the survey, 1/6th are in their second month of the survey, and so on. One feature of the LFS sample design is that each of the six rotation groups can be used as a representative sample by itself. Within selected dwellings, basic demographic information is collected for all household members. Labour force information is collected for all civilian household members who are aged 15 and over. Recently, the monthly               LFS sample size has been approximately 56,000 households, resulting in the collection of labour market information for approximately 100,000 individuals. It should be noted that the LFS sample size is subject to change from time to time in order to meet data quality or budget requirements. With the recent increase in coverage in Nunavut, the sample for all three territories is representative of the working-age population of each territory. Nunavut was initially designed to cover ten of the largest communities in the region, representing about 70% of all Nunavut residents aged 15 years and over. The increase in survey coverage in that territory, effective in the spring of 2009 and retroactive to the winter of 2008, brings it on par with the other two territories (96% in the Northwest Territories, 93% in Nunavut and 92% in Yukon). The LFS sample is allocated to provinces, territories and regions within provinces to meet the need for reliable estimates at various geographic               levels. These include national, provincial, territorial, census metropolitan areas (large cities), economic regions and employment insurance regions.\u003ch4\u003eCollection Method\u003c/h4\u003eData collection for the LFS is carried out each month during the week following the LFS reference week. The reference week is normally the week containing the 15th day of the month. LFS interviews are conducted by telephone by interviewers working out of a regional office CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews) site or by personal visit from a field interviewer. Since 2004, dwellings new to the sample in urban areas are contacted by telephone if the telephone number is available from administrative files, otherwise the dwelling is contacted by a field interviewer. The interviewer first obtains socio-demographic information for each household member and then obtains labour force information for all members aged 15 and over who are not members of the regular armed forces. The majority of subsequent interviews are conducted by telephone. In subsequent monthly interviews the interviewer confirms the socio-demographic information collected in the first month               and collects the labour force information for the current month. Persons aged 70 and over are not asked the labour force questions in subsequent interviews, but rather their labour force information is carried over from their first interview. Starting in 2015, LFS respondents who met certain criteria were offered the option of completing the survey on-line for subsequent interviews. In each dwelling, information about all household members is usually obtained from one knowledgeable household member. Such 'proxy' reporting, which accounts for approximately 65% of the information collected, is used to avoid the high cost and extended time requirements that would be involved in repeat visits or calls necessary to obtain information directly from each respondent.\u003ch4\u003eUniverse\u003c/h4\u003eThe LFS covers the civilian, non-institutionalised population 15 years of age and over. It is conducted nationwide, in both the provinces and the territories. Excluded from the survey's coverage are: persons living on reserves and other Aboriginal settlements in the provinces; full-time members of the Canadian Armed Forces, the institutionalized population, and households in extremely remote areas with very low population density. These groups together represent an exclusion of less than 2% of the Canadian population aged 15 and over. There are no questions in the LFS that ask respondents whether they are temporary foreign workers. Therefore it is not possible to produce counts of, or employment numbers for, temporary foreign workers from the LFS. If contacted for the LFS, temporary foreign workers will be included only if they identify the selected dwelling as their usual place of residence. In addition, they cannot be separated from a larger group of               respondents who were not born in Canada and who are not landed immigrants. In 2014, the 'other' category represented 2% of the employed population and would therefore have a negligible impact on the overall employment numbers. Also included in this group are: Canadian citizens by descent who were born elsewhere, foreign students with a study permit, claimants of refugee status or family members of immigrants who are not landed immigrants themselves. National Labour Force Survey estimates are derived using the results of the LFS in the provinces. Territorial LFS results are not included in the national estimates, but are published separately.\u003ch4\u003eWeights\u003c/h4\u003eThe final step in the processing of LFS data is the assignment of a weight to each individual record. This process involves several steps. Each record has an initial weight that corresponds to the inverse of the probability of selection. Adjustments are made to this weight to account for non-response that cannot be handled through imputation. In the final weighting step all of the record weights are adjusted so that the aggregate totals will match with independently derived population estimates for various age-sex groups by province and major sub-provincial areas. One feature of the LFS weighting process is that all individuals within a dwelling are assigned the same weight. In January 2000, the LFS introduced a new estimation method called Regression Composite Estimation. This new method was used to re-base all historical LFS data. It is described in the research paper \"Improvements to the Labour Force Survey (LFS)\", Catalogue no. 71F0031X. Additional               improvements are introduced over time; they are described in different issues of the same publication.\u003ch4\u003eResponse Rate\u003c/h4\u003eNon-response to the LFS tends to average about 10% of eligible households. Interviewers are instructed to make all reasonable attempts to obtain LFS interviews with members of eligible households. Each month, after all attempts to obtain interviews have been made, a small number of non-responding households remain. For households non-responding to the LFS, a weight adjustment is applied to account for non-responding households. Sampling errors associated with survey estimates are measured using coefficients of variation for LFS estimates as a function of the standard error and the size of the estimate.\u003ch4\u003eSample Error\u003c/h4\u003eSince the LFS is a sample survey, all LFS estimates are subject to both sampling error and non-sampling errors. Non-sampling errors can arise at any stage of the collection and processing of the survey data. These include coverage errors, non-response errors, response errors, interviewer errors, coding errors and other types of processing errors.\u003ch4\u003eCitation Requirements\u003c/h4\u003eAll publications using Statistics Canada data should identify Statistics Canada as the author, the respective survey title, as well as the year. The publishing of analysis and results from research using any of the data products is permitted in research communications such as scholarly papers, journals and the like. The authors of these communications are required to cite Statistics Canada as the source of the data, and to indicate that the results or views expressed are those of the author/authorized user and are not those of Statistics Canada.","provenance":"This data product and metadata is sourced from CSV, DDI, and documentation files made available by \u003ca href='https://odesi.ca/' target='_blank'\u003eODESI\u003c/a\u003e and the \u003ca href='https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/dli/dli' target='_blank'\u003eData Liberation Initative\u003c/a\u003e.","restriction":"For members of the Data Liberation Initiative community. Data may not be re-disseminated.","uri":"e879e793-b501-4c05-9a2d-b3e892149121","urls":["http://www.statcan.gc.ca/imdb-bmdi/3701-eng.htm"]}