Quarterly Labour Force Survey, 1992-2011: Secure Access

UKDA study number:6727

Series Title

Labour Force Survey Series

Principal Investigators

Office for National Statistics. Social Survey Division
Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Central Survey Unit

Sponsors

Office for National Statistics
Northern Ireland. Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment

Distributed by

UK Data Archive, University of Essex, Colchester.

May 2013 (3rd Edition)

Bibliographic Citation

All works which use or refer to these materials should acknowledge these sources by means of bibliographic citation. To ensure that such source attributions are captured for bibliographic indexes, citations must appear in footnotes or in the reference section of publications. The bibliographic citation for this data collection is:

Office for National Statistics. Social Survey Division and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Central Survey Unit, Quarterly Labour Force Survey, 1992-2011: Secure Access [computer file]. 3rd Edition. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive [distributor], May 2013. SN: 6727 , http://dx.doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-6727-4

Acknowledgement

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Copyright:
Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland

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6727 . Quarterly Labour Force Survey, 1992-2011: Secure Access

Series:

Labour Force Survey Series

Depositor:

Office for National Statistics. Virtual Microdata Laboratory (VML)

Principal Investigators:

Office for National Statistics. Social Survey Division

Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Central Survey Unit

Sponsors:

Office for National Statistics
Northern Ireland. Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment

Other Acknowledgements:

Until 5 July 1995, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) was the responsibility of the Employment Department. On that date, the Employment Department was abolished and responsibility for the survey was passed to the Central Statistical Office (CSO). In April 1996, the Central Statistical Office and the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys amalgamated to become the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The ONS' 'Social Survey Division' was renamed the 'Social and Vital Statistics Division' in April 2006, and then renamed back to 'Social Survey Division' in April 2009.

Abstract:

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a unique source of articulated information using international definitions of employment and unemployment and economic inactivity, together with a wide range of related topics such as occupation, training, hours of work and personal characteristics of household members aged 16 years and over. The first LFS was conducted in 1973, under the terms of a regulation derived from the Treaty of Rome, and the provision of information for the Statistical Office of the European Communities (SOEC), now known as Eurostat, continues to be one of the reasons for carrying out the survey. Eurostat co-ordinates information from labour force surveys in the European Union (EU) member states in order to assist the EU in such matters as the allocation of the Social Fund. The LFS was carried out biennially from 1973 to 1983, and was increasingly used during this time by British government departments to obtain information that would assist in the framing of social and economic policy. By 1983, the LFS was being used by the Employment Department to obtain information which was not available from other sources or was only available for Census years. Between 1984 and 1991 the survey was carried out annually and consisted of two elements:

• a quarterly survey conducted in Great Britain throughout the year, in which each sampled address was called on five times at quarterly intervals, and which yields about 15,000 responding households in every quarter
• a 'boost' survey in the spring quarter (then March-May, as data were collected seasonally), which produced interviews at over 44,000 households in Great Britain and over 4,000 households in Northern Ireland

During 1991, the LFS was further developed, so that from 1992 quarterly data were made available, with a quarterly sample size approximately equivalent to that of the previous annual data, that is 60,000 responding households every quarter. Thus, the survey became known as the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS). Between March 1992 and November 1994, interviewing in Northern Ireland was only conducted in the spring, with no quarterly element. However, from December 1994, data gathering for Northern Ireland moved to the full quarterly cycle to match the rest of the country. From that date, the QLFS covered the whole of the United Kingdom, though some additional annual Northern Ireland LFS datasets are also held at the UK Data Archive.

Secure Access QLFS data
Secure Access datasets for the QLFS are available from the April-June 1992 quarter, and include additional, detailed variables not included in either the standard 'End User Licence' (EUL) versions (see under GN 33246) or the Special Licence (SL) access versions (see under GN 33378). Extra variables that typically can be found in the Secure Access versions but not in the EUL or SL versions relate to:

• geography, including:
  • anonymised postcodes - currently available for the final quarter of 2009 only (and for Great Britain only), although these may be available for a number of additional recent quarters in the future
  • Census Area Statistical and electoral wards
  • Parliamentary Constituency Areas
  • Census Output Areas
  • Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics (NUTS) level 3 areas
  • Lower and Middle Layer Super Output Areas
  • Learning Partnership areas (England)
  • Travel to Work Areas
  • Scottish Data Zones
• education and training: including type of 'other qualifications', more detail regarding the number of O'levels/GCSE passes, type of qualification gained in last 12 months, class of first degree, type of degree held, UK country of highest degree, type of current educational institution, level of Welsh baccalaureate, activities to improve knowledge or skills in last 12 months, attendance at adult learning taught courses, attendance at leisure or educational classes, self-teaching, payment of job-related training fees
• household and family characteristics: including number of family units (and extended family units) with dependent children only, and with non-dependent children only, total number of family units with more than one person, total number of eligible people, type of household, type of family unit, number of bedrooms
• employment: including industry code of main job, whether working full-time or part-time, reason job is temporary, payment of own National Insurance and tax, when started working at previous job, whether paid or self-employed in previous job, contracts with employment agency
• unemployment and job hunting: including main reason for not being employed prior to current job, reasons for leaving job (provision of care or other personal/family reasons), use of internet for job hunting, if and when will work in the future
• temporary leave from work: including proportion of salary received and duration of leave
• accidents at work and work-related health problems
• nationality, national identity and country of birth: including whether lived continuously in UK, month of most recent arrival to UK, frequency of Welsh speaking
• occurence of learning difficulty or disability
• benefits, including additional variables on type of benefits claimed and tax credit payments

Prospective users of a Secure Access version of the QLFS will need to fulfil additional requirements, commencing with the completion of an extra application form to demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the extra, more detailed variables, in order to obtain permission to use that version. Secure Access users must also complete face-to-face training and agree to Secure Access' User Agreement and Breaches Penalties Policy (see 'Access' section below). Therefore, users are encouraged to download and inspect the EUL version of the data prior to ordering the Secure Access (or SL) version.

In 2009, the ONS undertook a reweighting project, whereby LFS data were reweighted using population estimates for 2009 rather than for 2007-2008 population figures used for the previous LFS reweighting project conducted in 2007. A further reweighting project was undertaken in early 2011, whereby LFS data were reweighted using population estimates for 2010. Secure Access versions of the QLFS data files include the 2007 weighting variables up to July-September 2009 (first edition). 2009 weighting variables are included between July-September 2006 and January-March 2010 (first edition). 2010 weighting variables are included between July-September 2001 and January-March 2010 (second edition).

Geographical references: postcodes
The postcodes available for limited data files (see above) in the Secure Access version of the data are pseudo-anonymised postcodes. The real postcodes are not available due to the potential risk of identification of the observations. However, these replacement postcodes retain the inherent nested characteristics of real postcodes, and will allow researchers to aggregate observations to other geographic units, e.g. wards, super output areas, etc. In the dataset, the variable of the replacement postcode is 'new_PC'. Users who specifically require postcodes to undertake their analyses are advised to read the Office for National Statistics document Geographical references in the Virtual Microdata Laboratory and Secure Data Service before applying for access to the data.

Special Licence Access QLFS data
SL access versions of the QLFS data are available from the January-March 2003 quarter. The SL versions contain extra variables not found in the standard EUL versions, and therefore are subject to more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the EUL (but less stringent than Secure Access versions). Typically, variables that can be found in the SL data, and that are not available in the standard EUL version, are: month and year of birth; Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics Level 2 (NUTS2) (county-level); 4-digit Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) for occupation in apprenticeship, last job, second job and job made redundant from; unitary authority/local authority for place of residence and place of work; urban/rural indicator. Data for households of size 10 or above, which are excluded from the standard EUL data, can also be found in the SL data.

Additional QLFS data
Additional datasets are also produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) using LFS data, and many of these are also deposited at the UK Data Archive. Full details of all LFS data held by the Archive, comprising the main quarterly datasets (including SL and standard EUL versions), Household, Two-Quarter and Five-Quarter Longitudinal, Eurostat, Local Area, annual LFS and annual Northern Ireland LFS data, are available from the Labour Force Survey datasets page.

LFS move from seasonal to calendar quarters
In accordance with EU regulations, the LFS moved from seasonal (spring, summer, autumn, winter) quarters to calendar quarters (January-March, April-June, July-September, October-December) in 2006. After the 2007 LFS reweighting project, calendar versions of all datasets in the main QLFS series were deposited at the Archive and the previous seasonal datasets were removed from the Archive catalogue at the request of ONS. However, some seasonal datasets may still exist for other LFS series, and ONS advise that, because of the method of construction and the weighting factors used in the datasets, comparison cannot be made between datasets of a calendar and seasonal nature. Time series and longitudinal analysis should only be conducted on datasets of the same type.

LFS Documentation
The documentation available from the Archive to accompany LFS datasets largely consists of the latest version of each volume alongside the appropriate questionnaire for the year concerned. However, LFS volumes are updated periodically by ONS, so users are advised to check the ONS LFS User Guidance pages before commencing analysis

Note on second edition
For the second edition (August 2011) data have been reweighted using the latest population estimates (2010), and the files contain new weighting variables, pwt10 and piwt10, accordingly.

Note on third edition
The third edition (May 2013) includes data from quarters April - June 2010 until January - March 2011.

Main Topics:

The QLFS questionnaire comprises a 'core' of questions which are included in every survey, together with some 'non-core' questions which vary from quarter to quarter.

The questionnaire can be split into two main parts. The first part contains questions on the respondent's household, family structure, basic housing information and demographic details of household members. The second part contains questions covering economic activity, education and health, and also may include a few questions asked on behalf of other government departments (for example the Department for Work and Pensions and the Home Office). Until 1997, the questions on health focussed on problems that affect the respondent's work. Since then, the questions have covered all health problems. Detailed questions on income have also been included in each quarter since 1993. The basic questionnaire is revised each year, and a new version published, along with a transitional version that details changes from the previous year's questionnaire.

Coverage:

Time Period Covered: April 1992 - March 2011
Country: United Kingdom
Spatial Units: Countries;Electoral Wards/Divisions (UK);Government Office Regions (GORs);Unitary Authorities (England);Unitary Authorities (Wales);Output Areas (2001);Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies (UK); Local Authority Districts; Standard Statistical Regions; NUTS-II areas; NUTS-III areas; Wards (Census Area Statistical); Super Output Areas (Lower Layer); Super Output Areas (Middle Layer); Postcode (Unit) [anonymised]; Travel to Work Areas; Learning Partnership Areas; Scottish Data Zones
Observation Units: Individuals; Families/households
Kind of Data: Numeric data; Individual (micro) level

Universe Sampled:

Location of Units of Observation: National
Population: All persons normally resident in private households in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. From winter 1994-1995, Northern Ireland is included in each quarter. Prior to this, data were only collected there in the March-May quarter each year. When the LFS moved to a quarterly cycle, two new groups of people were included in the survey to improve the coverage of young people: residents in National Health Service (NHS) hospital accommodation (formerly called nurses' homes), and students living in halls of residence or boarding schools.

Methodology:

Time Dimensions: Repeated cross-sectional study
Data are collected quarterly
Sampling Procedures: Simple random sample
Four sampling frames are used. For Great Britain, south of the Caledonian Canal, the Post Office Address File is used, whilst north of the Caledonian Canal, a random sample is drawn from the published telephone directory. The sample of residents in NHS accommodation is also drawn, unclustered, for the whole of Great Britain using a specially-prepared frame. In Northern Ireland, the source of the sample is the Valuation List used for rating purposes, excluding commercial units and known institutions. Households are interviewed on five occasions at quarterly intervals, thereby introducing a panel element to the survey. For further details see documentation.
Number of Units: Approximately 114,000 - 157,000 cases.
Method of Data Collection: Face-to-face interview; Telephone interview; the first interview is conducted face-to-face, and subsequent interviews by telephone where possible.
Weighting: Weighting used. See documentation for details.

Language(s) of Written Materials:

Study Description: English
Study Documentation: English

Access:

Access Conditions: Registration is required and standard conditions of use apply. The depositor may be informed about usage. Secure Access requirements and conditions also apply. See Applying on the Service's website for further information. In addition, the Service is required to request explicit permission from the data owner prior to providing the researcher with access to the data.
Available to UK HE/FE applicants only.

Please note:
Since these data are more sensitive and/or pose a higher risk of disclosure than data made available under the standard End User Licence or under a Special Licence, they are not available for download but may be accessed through the Secure Access. Access requires accreditation by the UK Statistics Authority as an Approved Researcher, completion of face-to-face training, and agreement to the Service's User Agreement and Breaches Penalties Policy. This is to ensure that the guarantee of confidentiality given to survey respondents is protected. Applications are screened by the UK Data Archive and the Office for National Statistics, and access is only granted to those researchers requiring data for statistical research purposes and who can justify their need for the data. Users who obtain access to these data are required to read and follow the Microdata Handling and Security: Guide to Good Practice.
Availability: UK Data Service
Contact: Get in touch

Date of First Release:

25 March 2011

Date of Latest Release:

8 May 2013 ( 3rd Edition )

Copyright:

Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland

File last updated:

16 May 2013