Section E:
Transitions and outcomes

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E1 Transitions to postsecondary education
Participation in education [PDF version]
Moving from high school to postsecondary education [PDF version]
E2 Transitions to the labour market
Students and work [PDF version]
E3 Labour market outcomes
Unemployment rates [PDF version]

E1 Transitions to postsecondary education

Participation in education

Tables E.1.1, E.1.2.1 and E.1.2.2

Indicator E1 considers youth transitions from high school to postsecondary education. This first indicator subset uses data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) to present participation rates in education for 15- to 34-year-olds in Canada and the provinces (Table E.1.1, Table E.1.2.1 and Table E.1.2.2).

Concepts and definitions

• The Labour Force Survey (LFS) asks respondents about school attendance in the week before the survey, at a "school, college or university". For those who are students, information is collected on the type of school, and whether enrolment is full- or part-time, as designated by the educational establishment. For this indicator, the participation rate reflects the total enrolment in a primary/secondary, college, or university institution as a percentage of the total population in each age group.

• Age is collected for every household member in the survey, and the information on labour market activity is collected for all persons aged 15 and over.

Methodology

• The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a monthly household survey of a sample of individuals who are representative of the civilian, non-institutionalized population 15 years of age or older. 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 Forces and the institutionalized population. These groups together represent an exclusion of approximately 2% of the population aged 15 and over. Canada-level LFS estimates are derived using the results of the LFS in the provinces. Territorial LFS results are not included in the Canada-level estimates, but are published separately.

• Participation rates are presented at the Canada level (excluding the territories) for single ages from 15 through to 29 (Table E.1.1). Rates for the provinces are presented for different age groups: 15 to 19, 20 to 24 and 25 to 29 (Table E.1.2.1), as well as 18 to 24, 25 to 29 and 30 to 34 (Table E.1.2.2). The LFS participation rate in education is based on a monthly average from September to April.

Limitations

• 'Other' types of institutions are excluded from the total in Tables E.1.1 and E.1.2 and are not included in the three types of schools: primary or secondary school; community college, junior college or CEGEP; and university. For the "kind of school" variable, 'Other - specify' is an option and includes:  English as a second language or French language courses that do not qualify as high school, college or university education; police academies; computer and business skills programs other than those offered by colleges or universities; culinary, hairdressing or bartending schools; and special education that focuses on community living and life skills for students with special needs.
  
  
• It is unclear where trade certificate programs are placed in the "kind of school" variable. Trade schools could be coded to the 'community college, junior college or CEGEP group' or to 'Other - specify', depending on how the respondent answers the question and the interviewer's interpretation of the answer.
  
  
• Caution should be exercised in interpreting the provincial ratios and differences in ratios between provinces and over time, as small estimates may present fairly high sampling variability. Estimates for small geographic areas, for small age-groups or for cross-classified variables will be associated with larger variability.
  
  
• For an explanation on estimates sampling variability and the method to evaluate this variability with standard error, please refer to the section on Data Quality in the Guide to the Labour Force Survey, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/bsolc/olc-cel/olc-cel?catno=71-543-GWE&lang=eng

Data source

• Labour Force Survey, Statistics Canada. For more information consult "Definitions, data sources and methods", Statistics Canada Web site, survey 3701, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=3701&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2

Moving from high school to postsecondary education

Tables E.1.4 to E.1.6

Indicator E1 considers youth transitions from high school to postsecondary education. Tables E.1.4 to E.1.6 are based on data from the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS). Table E.1.4 examines the educational status of a cohort of young adults at various points in time, beginning when they were 17 years of age in Cycle 2 of YITS (in 2001) to when they were 25 years of age in Cycle 6 (in 2009). The subsequent tables focus on young adults who leave high school without having completed the requirements for high school graduation. Table E.1.5 looks at YITS respondents who were high-school non-completers at the age of 19 in 2003 and reports on the proportion of these who had obtained additional education by the time they were 25 years of age 2009. Table E.1.6, which is based on data from the two longitudinal cohorts of young adults surveyed by YITS (those who were 25 years of age in 2005 and those who were 25 years of age in 2009), examines if the more recent cohort of young adults was more or less likely to ever have left high school without graduating. Information is presented for Canada and the provinces.

Concepts and definitions

• This indicator is based on data from the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS), a longitudinal survey developed by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and Statistics Canada. YITS surveyed two cohorts of youth every two years for a period of time. One cohort entered the survey when they were 15 years of age in 1999 (referred to as cohort A¹); a second cohort began their participation in YITS when they were between the ages of 18 and 20 in 1999 (cohort B). YITS surveyed these two cohorts until the 2007 reference year (cohort B), and until 2009 cohort. It is important to note that in each cycle, the cohorts have aged two years. Table E.1.4 and Table E.1.5 present information for cohort A, while Table E.1.6 is based on data from both cohort A and cohort B.
  
  
• Educational status refers to a respondent's overall educational status as of the survey reference date. Education categories are mutually exclusive.
  • High school status captures the following three groups:
  • high school non-completers—respondents who had not completed the high    school graduation requirements, and who were not attending high school as of the reference date;
  • high school continuers—respondents who were continuing their studies at the high school level and who had not yet graduated as of the reference date; and
  • high school graduates—respondents who have completed the minimum requirements for a high school graduation certificate, diploma or equivalent and have no postsecondary education.

• Postsecondary education is any education beyond high school, towards a diploma, certificate or degree that would take someone three months or more to complete. Trade programs offered through apprenticeship, vocational schools or private trade schools do not always require high school graduation. Such education is considered postsecondary.
  • Postsecondary education status captures the following groups:
  • postsecondary non-completers—respondents who had undertaken a postsecondary education but were no longer pursuing it and had never graduated from a postsecondary education institution;
  • postsecondary continuers—respondents who were attending a postsecondary education institution but had not yet graduated;
    postsecondary graduate non-continuers—respondents who have graduated from a postsecondary institution (respondents who had completed the graduation requirements towards a diploma, certificate or degree) and were not pursuing additional education in a postsecondary institution; and
  • postsecondary graduate continuers—respondents who have already graduated from a postsecondary institution and were attending an additional postsecondary program.
    
    
• Additional education (Table E.1.5) includes one or more of the following: eventual high school completion or its equivalent; some postsecondary education (those who had ever attended some form of postsecondary education without obtaining a certificate/diploma/degree; or postsecondary graduation.
  
  
• Respondents who ever left high school (Table E.1.6) are those who left elementary or high school at some point without having obtained the requirements for high school graduation, whether or not they later returned to education, either high school or postsecondary. As YITS asks respondents whether they ever left elementary or secondary school, it is not possible to differentiate between those who left elementary school and those who left secondary school. Further analysis, based on the age at which respondents last attended school, indicates that the numbers who left elementary school are very small.

Methodology

• The target population for cohort A comprises individuals who were born in 1984 and in the 1999/2000 school year were attending any form of schooling in the provinces of Canada. These individuals were 15 years of age in 1999 (in Cycle 1) and 25 years of age in 2009, the reference year for Cycle 6. The sample for this cohort was school-based, with schools selected in the first stage of sampling, and students selected from these schools in the second stage of sampling. Schools in the territories and on Indian reserves were excluded. Some school- and student-level exclusions were made in the sampling. However, exclusions of all types represented, in total, less than 5% of the national desired target population.
  
  
• The target population for the older YITS cohort (cohort B) comprises residents of the 10 provinces of Canada who were born between 1979 and 1981. These individuals were aged 18 to 20 in 1999, the reference year for Cycle 1, and were between the ages of 24 and 26 in 2005, the reference year for Cycle 4. The sample design of cohort B was determined to a large degree by the sample design of the Labour Force Survey (LFS). As is the case with the LFS, this cohort excludes residents of Yukon, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories, persons living on Indian reserves, full-time members of the Canadian Forces and inmates of institutions. These groups together represent an exclusion of approximately 2% of the population aged 15 and over, in the LFS.
  
  
• YITS is strictly a longitudinal survey. The initial samples of 15-year-olds and 18- to 20-year-olds selected at Cycle 1 were surveyed every two years for a number of cycles. As part of the YITS methodology, no attempts are made to top-up the samples from cycle to cycle to ensure a cross-sectional representation of these populations. Furthermore, YITS loses some of its existing sample with each survey cycle because non-respondents at a specific survey are not followed up for subsequent cycles of the survey. It is important to note that, for this reason, only those respondents who were 15 years of age in 1999 (Cycle 1) and who remained in the survey in Cycle 6 were used to calculate the statistics for each reference year in Table E.1.4 and Table E.1.5.
  
  
• The implication of these factors along with changes in the population of Canada over time—primarily due to immigration and emigration—is that although the original sample for cohort A is representative of Canadians who were 15 years of age as of Cycle 1 of YITS (December 1999) and the original sample for cohort B is representative of Canadian who were 18 to 20 years of age in Cycle 1, these samples do not continue to be representative of a cross-section of the age cohorts in each subsequent YITS cycle. For example, in Table E.1.4, the sample is not representative of a cross-section of the overall population aged 17 (in December 2001), 21 (in December 2005), and 25 (December 2009).

Limitations

• Because cohort A and cohort B were sampled differently and because YITS loses some of its sample after Cycle 1, a direct comparison of the educational profile of these two samples at age 25 (Table E.1.6) should be viewed with caution.
  
  
• Although the initial sample selected for cohort A is representative of Canadians who were 15 years of age as of Cycle 1 of YITS (December 1999) and the initial sample selected for cohort B is representative of Canadian who were 18 to 20 years of age in Cycle 1, these samples do not continue to be representative of a cross-section of the age cohorts in each subsequent YITS cycle.
  
  
• Canada totals include those respondents who last attended high school in the territories, but data for the territories are not shown separately as there are only a few cases.

Data source

• Youth in Transition Survey, Cycles 2 through 6 (for cohort A) and Cycle 4 (for cohort B), Statistics Canada. For more information, consult "Definitions, data sources and methods", Statistics Canada Web site, survey 4435, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=4435&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2

E2 Transitions to the labour market

Students and work

Tables E.2.1 through E.2.3

Indicator E2, which covers the transition from postsecondary education to the labour market, has four subsets. This first indicator subset uses Labour Force Survey (LFS) data to look at the extent to which students aged 15 to 29 combine school and work (Table E.2.1 and Table E.2.2), and at the distribution of this population group by type of institution attended, labour force status and age group(s) (Table E.2.3).

Concepts and definitions

• The Labour Force Survey (LFS) asks respondents about school attendance in the week before the survey, at a "school, college or university," in addition to labour force participation information. Persons who are supplying services in the reference period, regardless of the quantity supplied, are classified as employed, while those who provide evidence that they are offering their labour services to the market (again regardless of quantity) are classified as unemployed. Those in the remainder of the population who are neither currently supplying nor offering their labour services are referred to as persons not in the labour force.

• Employed persons are those who: during the reference week, did any work at all at a job or business; that is, paid work in the context of an employer-employee relationship, or self-employment. It also includes unpaid family work, which is defined as unpaid work contributing directly to the operation of a farm, business or professional practice owned and operated by a related member of the same household; or had a job but were not at work due to factors such as own illness or disability, personal or family responsibilities, vacation, labour dispute or other reasons (excluding persons on layoff, between casual jobs, and those with a job to start at a future date).

• Given the concept of unemployment as the unutilized supply of labour, the operational definition of unemployment is based primarily on the activity of job search and the availability to take a job. In addition to being conceptually appropriate, job search activities can, in a household survey, be objectively and consistently measured over time. The definition of unemployed persons is therefore those who, during the reference week:

  a. were on temporary layoff during the reference week with an expectation of recall and were available for work, or
  b. were without work, had actively looked for work in the past four weeks, and were available for work, or
  c. had a new job to start within four weeks from reference week, and were available for work.

  Persons are regarded as available if they reported that they could have worked in the reference week if a suitable job had been offered (or recalled if on temporary layoff), or if the reason they could not take a job was of a temporary nature such as: own illness or disability, personal or family responsibilities; they already had a job to start in the near future; or they were on vacation (prior to 1997, those on vacation were not considered available). Full-time students currently attending school and looking for full-time work are not considered to be available for work during the reference week. They are assumed to be looking for a summer or co-op job or permanent job to start sometime in the future, and are therefore not part of the current labour supply.

• Age is collected for every household member in the survey, and the information on labour market activity is collected for all persons aged 15 and over. For this indicator, those aged 15 to 29 are examined.

• Labour force status designates the status of the respondent vis-à-vis the labour market:  a member of the non-institutional population 15 years of age and over is either employed, unemployed, or not in the labour force.

Methodology

• Proportion of students working and distribution of the population by type of institution attended and labour force status data are presented at the Canada level for single ages from 15 through to 29, as well as a total 15 to 29 in Tables E.2.1 and E.2.3.  Comparable data for the provinces are presented for three age groups:  15 to 19, 20 to 24, and 25 to 29, with a total 15 to 29 in Table E.2.3.  The LFS participation rate in education is based on a monthly average from September to April.
• In Table E.2.3, type of institution attended and labour force status are categorized as:  non-student not in the labour force, non-student unemployed, non-student employed, university employed, university not in the labour force, college employed, college not in the labour force, primary/secondary employed, primary/secondary not in the labour force and "other".
• The "other" category includes unemployed students attending university, college, primary or secondary schools and students attending other kinds of schools.
• The concepts of employment and unemployment are derived from the theory of the supply of labour as a factor of production and are based on those endorsed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The production referred to is in turn defined as those goods and services included in the System of National Accounts. For this reason, unpaid housework and volunteer work are not counted as work by the survey.
• For the purposes of measuring job search as part of the identification of the unemployed, the LFS uses a four-week search period although the reference period for identifying the employed is that of one week. The justification for the difference is that delays inherent in job search (for example, periods spent awaiting the results of earlier job applications) require that the active element of looking for work be measured over a period greater than one week if a comprehensive measure of job search is to be obtained.

Limitations

• Most industrialized countries, including Canada and the United States, subscribe to guidelines established by the International Labour Office for defining and measuring labour market status, including unemployment. However, the guidelines are, by design, rather imprecise, so that individual countries can interpret them within the context of their own labour markets. As a result, unemployment rates are not strictly comparable across all countries. The LFS has investigated in detail the measurement differences between the US and Canadian unemployment rates. The results show that measurement differences account for about a fifth of the gap between the US and Canada unemployment rates.

• Caution should be exercised in interpreting the provincial ratios and differences in ratios between provinces and over time, as small estimates may present fairly high sampling variability. Estimates for small geographic areas, for small age-groups or for cross-classified variables will be associated with larger variability.

• For an explanation on estimates' sampling variability and the method to evaluate this variability with standard error, please refer to the section on Data Quality in the Guide to the Labour Force Survey, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/bsolc/olc-cel/olc-cel?catno=71-543-GWE&lang=eng

Data source

• Labour Force Survey, Statistics Canada. For more information consult "Definitions, data sources and methods", Statistics Canada Web site, survey 3701, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=3701&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2

E3 Labour market outcomes

Unemployment rates

Tables E.3.1 through E.3.3

Overall, the E3 indicator outlines labour market outcomes. This sub-indicator presents recent and historical Labour Force Survey (LFS) data on unemployment rates by educational attainment, providing information on trends for the population aged 15 and over at the Canada level (Table E.3.1). It also provides a comparison of trends in unemployment rates by educational attainment for 25- to 29-year-olds in Canada and the provinces (Table E.3.2). Data on unemployment rates among the off-reserve Aboriginal population aged 15 and over, by educational attainment, are presented for Canada (Table E.3.3).

Concepts and definitions

• According to the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the unemployment rate refers to the number of unemployed persons expressed as a percentage of the labour force. The unemployment rate for a particular group (educational attainment, for example) is the number unemployed in that group expressed as a percentage of the labour force for that group.
  
  Unemployed people are those who, during the LFS reference week, were available for work and were either on temporary layoff, had looked for work in the past four weeks, or had a job to start within the next four weeks.

• Unemployment rates are presented for the following categories of educational attainment:  all levels; less than high school; high school; college or trade; and university.
  
  Less than high school: No education or education below high school graduation.
  
  High school:  High school graduation or some postsecondary education (not completed).
  
  College or trade: trade certificate or diploma from a vocational school or apprenticeship training; non-university certificate or diploma from a community college, CEGEP, school of nursing and similar programs at this level; university certificate below bachelor's level.
  
  University: bachelor's degree or university degree/certificate above bachelor's level.

• The off-reserve Aboriginal population refers to those persons who reported identifying with at least one Aboriginal group; for example, North American Indian, Métis or Inuit. This is based on the individual's own perception of his or her Aboriginal identity.²

Methodology

• Statistics Canada's monthly Labour Force Survey (LFS) was developed following the Second World War to satisfy a need for reliable and timely data on the labour market. LFS data are used to produce the well-known unemployment rate as well as other standard labour market indicators (the employment rate and the participation rate). The survey covers the civilian, non-institutionalized population 15 years of age and over. It is conducted nationwide, in both the provinces and the territories. The survey does not cover: persons living on reserves and other Aboriginal settlements in the provinces; full-time members of the Canadian Forces and the institutionalized population. These groups together represent an exclusion of less than 2% of the Canadian population aged 15 and over.

• The Aboriginal population data for 2007 through 2010 presented in Table E.3.3 are for Canada. The Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates for Canada are derived using results from the provinces; the territories are excluded. The LFS has revised the weights used for the Aboriginal population data, which has resulted in the revision of several previously published estimates. Data for 2004, 2005 and 2006, are for Western Canada only (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia).

• The LFS unemployment rate is based on a monthly average from January to December. For 2004, the monthly average is from April to December (Table E.3.3)

• Starting in late 2003 in Alberta, and then in April 2004 for the rest of Western Canada, the LFS added questions to identify Aboriginal respondents living off-reserve with the goal of producing provincial labour market statistics on the Aboriginal population. The Aboriginal identity questions were also asked in the territories in 2004. As of January 2007, the question on Aboriginal identity has been extended to all provinces. Labour market data for the Aboriginal population have been available for all provinces since the fall of 2008.

Limitations 

• The Labour Force Survey (LFS) excludes: persons living on reserves and other Aboriginal settlements in the provinces; full-time members of the Canadian Forces and the institutionalized population. These groups together represent an exclusion of approximately 2% of the population aged 15 and over³. The territories are excluded from the Canada total because the Labour Force Surveys conducted in the North are extended pilot projects. Difficulties exist with respect to reaching small communities in the territories, and as a result even within the pilot projects there are areas of the territories that are excluded. As well, since the sample design, rotation pattern and reliability criteria are different from those in the ten provinces, estimates for the territories are not included with the provincial totals, but rather they are calculated and reported separately as a part of each of the extended projects.

• Indian reserves have historically been excluded from the LFS due to the serious challenges in contacting and interviewing potential respondents, with many of them living in remote locations not easily accessible to LFS interviewers given the short data collection period each month, and the large effort and cost associated with traveling to these locations.

• Caution should be exercised in interpreting the provincial ratios and differences in ratios between provinces and over time, as small estimates may present fairly high sampling variability. Estimates for small geographic areas, for small age-groups or for cross-classified variables will be associated with larger variability.

• For an explanation on estimates sampling variability and the method to evaluate this variability with standard error, please refer to the section on "Data quality" in the Guide to the Labour Force Survey

Data source

• Labour Force Survey, Statistics Canada. For more information consult "Definitions, data sources and methods", Statistics Canada Web site, survey 3701, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=3701&lang=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2

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Notes:

1. The younger cohort also participated in the Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA) when they were 15 years of age in Cycle 1. PISA, an international assessment run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, was designed to assess the literacy skills of youth in reading, mathematics, and science.

2. See "Aboriginal identity" in "Section 3: Dictionary of concepts and definitions" in the Guide to the Labour Force Survey (Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 71-543-G), (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/71-543-g/2010001/part-partie3-eng.htm).

3. See "Population coverage" in "Section 4: Survey methodology" in the Guide to the Labour Force Survey (Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 71-543-G, (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/71-543-g/2010001/part-partie4-eng.htm).