Canadian Employer Employee Dynamics Database (CEEDD): Introduction

The Canadian Employer-Employee Dynamics Database (CEEDD) is a set of linkable files maintained by Statistics Canada to provide linkage between employees and employers in the Canadian labour market. This linkable employer-employee dataset is based on processed administrative data sources from Statistics Canada (StatCan), Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

The construction of the CEEDD takes advantage of various administrative data sets that can be linked at the person level and job level using individual's Social Insurance Number (SIN) and employer's Business Number (BN). The population of the CEEDD covers all individuals and firms that can be identified from the administrative files. A key feature of the CEEDD data structure is that it is a set of linkable files from different sources instead of being a single linked file containing all variables available from numerous linkages. Using unique personal and firm identifiers available on each linkable file, information at the employee and employer level can be linked across different component files over time.

Analysis using the CEEDD data can be done either on a cross-sectional basis―at a given point in time based on covariates drawn from the same year across different component files; or longitudinally―by tracking firms and individuals over time across different component files. In particular, with the longitudinal linked employer-employee data structure, employer-employee relationships can be monitored by following specific employer-employee pairings over time. Doing so allow analyses of worker transitions across employers, job tenure, and of the number of jobs held at some point in a given year by employees.

The CEEDD is created from the component files listed in Table 1, which allows researchers to access processed variables at the individual level, family level, job level, and firm level. A set of geographic indicators at the sub-provincial level that can be linked to postal code of the analytical files is also available to users. The CEEDD data provides researchers with: workers' and business owners' information using T1 tax forms and T2 corporate tax returns; job-level information using T4 records and Record of Employment (ROE) data; and firm-level information from the National Accounts Longitudinal Microdata File (NALMF) maintained by Statistics Canada. Sub groups of the population such as immigrants or temporary foreign workers can be analyzed using the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) and the Temporary Residents File from IRCC. Table 1 also outlines what type of data is available, its source file(s), and time periods available (which depends on the vintage). A new vintage of CEEDD is produced every year with updates from the most current information available.

The full CEEDD dataset is not publicly available to researchers because individual worker and firm observations are confidential under the Statistics Act. However, researchers can pay for custom cuts of the CEEDD linked files through Statistics Canada's Research Data Centers (RDCs). Information on the access process, application requirements and costing can be found on the RDCs' website. Inquiries regarding custom tabulations from the CEEDD linkage environment should be directed to statcan.asbproductionsupport-deasoutienalaproduction.statcan@statcan.gc.ca. Analytical output based on the CEEDD linkage environment can be found under Statistics Canada's Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series and Economic and Social Reports."