Data quality, concepts and methodology

Data Source

This publication uses data from Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey (LFS). The LFS is a monthly household survey that collects data on the labour market activities of working-age Canadians, namely, those 15 years or over. Excluded from the survey are persons living in Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, persons living on Indian reserves, inmates of institutions, and full-time members of the Canadian Armed Forces.

The majority of LFS statistics refer to a particular week each month (the reference week). The data in this publication are based on the average of the 12 reference weeks of the year in question. Annual average data eliminate the effects of seasonal movements and, being based on larger samples, considerably reduce sampling error.

The statistical objective of the LFS from its inception has been to break the working-age population into three mutually exclusive classifications-employed, unemployed, and not in the labour force-and to provide descriptive and explanatory data on each category.

The 1997 LFS redesign allowed, for the first time, the exclusion of maternity leave, a major factor in time lost by women for personal or family responsibilities. The LFS enhancements also added more classification variables. It is now possible, for example, to estimate work absence rates by workplace size, union coverage and job permanency. (Note that any changes in a questionnaire may yield data that differ slightly from those of earlier years.)

Section A of this publication provides absence rates for 2003 by a variety of factors; maternity leave is excluded from the personal or family responsibilities code. Section B provides time series including maternity absences for the period from 1991 to 1997, and excluding maternity absences from 1997 to 2003. The illness or disability absence rates were not affected by the redesign, nor were the rates for men.

Absence rates including and excluding maternity leave are presented for 1997 to provide some rough measure of the impact of the questionnaire changes on the series (however, users are cautioned against using this rough measure as an adjustment factor for the pre-redesign series).

For a fuller description of the LFS objectives, coverage, sampling techniques, concepts, definitions, and data quality, see Historical Labour Force Statistics (Catalogue no. 71-201-XPB) or visit the Internet at /english/freepub/71-543-GIE/0000071-543-GIE.pdf for the Guide to the Labour Force Survey.