Data quality, concepts and methodology: Data Source
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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 of age 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.)
Tables 1 to 3 provide absence rates for 2011 by a variety of factors. Tables 4 to 10 provide time series for the period 2001 to 2011. Maternity leave is excluded from the personal or family responsibilities code. However, men on paid paternity (in Quebec only) and parental leave are included in the calculation until 2006.
All estimates have been adjusted to reflect the 2006 Census population data. Industry estimates have been reclassified from the 2002 to the 2007 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Occupation estimates have been reclassified from the 2001 to the 2006 National Occupational Classification for Statistics (NOC-S). Geography boundaries have been updated from the 2001 to the 2006 Standard Geographical Classification (SGC), which mainly affects boundaries of census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations. There was also an update of seasonal adjustment. For an overview of the effect of these changes on the estimates, see "The 2011 revisions of the Labour Force Survey (LFS)," which is available as part of the Improvements to the Labour Force Survey series (71F0031X, free).
For a fuller description of the LFS objectives, coverage, sampling techniques, concepts, definitions and data quality, see the Labour Force Historical Review (Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 71F0004XCB) or the Guide to the Labour Force Survey at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/bsolc/olc-cel/olc-cel?lang=eng&catno=71-543-G.
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