The concepts and definitions used in the survey are based on those contained in the Recommendation of the 13th International Conference of Labour Statisticians, convened in 1982 by the International Labour Organisation (hereafter referred as the ‘ILO guidelines’).
The main statistical objectives of the Labour Force Survey is to divide the population of working age (15 years and above) into three mutually exclusive and exhaustive groups - persons in employment, unemployed persons and inactive persons - and to provide descriptive and explanatory data on each of these categories. Respondents are assigned to one of these groups on the basis of the most objective information possible obtained through the survey questionnaire, which principally relates to their actual activity within a particular reference week.
The economic active population comprises employed and unemployed persons.
Employed persons are persons aged 15 year and over[1] (who during the reference week performed work, even for just one hour a week, for pay, profit or family gain or were not at work but had a job or business from which they were temporarily absent because of, e.g., illness, holidays, industrial dispute and education and training.
Unemployed persons are persons aged 15-74 who were without work during the reference week, were currently available for work and were either actively seeking work in the past four weeks or had already found a job to start within the next three months.
Inactive persons are those who neither classified as employed nor as unemployed.
[1] Aged 16 and over in Spain, UK and Sweden (1995-2001); 15-74 years in Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Finland, Norway and Sweden (from 2001 onwards); 16-74 in Iceland) |
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