Getting started with the Northern Ireland Labour Force Survey
1. Which dataset do I want?
There are a number of NI Labour Force
Survey (NI LFS) datasets available from the UK Data Archive, each of which represents
annual data. Data are available from 1995 onwards.
2. Consulting the documentation
It will not be possible to analyse
the NI LFS without reference to the documentation. Documentation is available
for viewing before downloading/ordering the data, however you will also obtain
the documentation if you download the data as a zipped file. The documentation
contains:
o information about how the survey
is conducted
o information about which variables are available
o information about how the data is coded
o the survey questionnaires
The survey questionnaires can also
be obtained on the Survey Question
Bank web site, which provides readily searchable versions of questionnaires
for all major surveys used by secondary analysts.
3. Registering for the data
Once you have decided which data to
use for your project you will need to register
with ESDS to obtain the data. Information about obtaining data can be found
on the ESDS web site.
Registered users can download/order a large and increasing number of datasets
direct from the (usually in SPSS, STATA or tab-delimited formats)
via its online catalogue record and via the download/order section of the Major
Studies web pages.
4. Downloading the data
Once registered you can download the data directly as a zipped ASCII,
STATA or SPSS file. This download will also include necessary documentation.
5. Analysing the data using an appropriate
analysis package
Because the NI LFS datasets are microdata you will need to analyse them using
an appropriate package, to do this you will need to use a package like SPSS,
STATA or SAS.
If you are unfamiliar with these
packages you can find a STATA
guide on the ESDS Government pages, which uses examples from the Labour
Force Survey. A guide to SPSS is also available, based on the HSE 2002 teaching
dataset. Several organisations offer introductory SPSS and STATA courses. CCSR
at the University of Manchester offers one-day courses although there is a charge.
Details of these courses can be obtained through the CCSR
Short Course Pages.
6. Communicating with other users
and obtaining support
An LFS user group meets on an occasional
basis. This group allows users to meet each other and the data depositors. It
is a good way to find out what other people are doing with the data and to hear
about future developments. LFS User Group Meetings are publicised on ESDS
Government's events pages.
The ESDS-govsurveys
JISCmail list is an email list you can join to hear about events and other
news relating to the large-scale government list, including the NI LFS. To join
the list click on the above link to the ESDS-govsurveys list web page or email
listserv@jiscmail.ac.uk with the following message:
subscribe esds-govsurveys firstname
secondname
If you hit a problem with the data
while doing your work feel free to contact us. Queries relating to the large-scale
government datasets should be sent to:
govsurveys@esds.ac.uk
Alternatively you can telephone +44
(0)161 275 1980.
A list of Frequently Asked Questions for the Northern Ireland Labour Force Survey is also available.
7. Publishing
We need to let other researchers and
data depositors know what publications are available using the NI LFS. If you
publish using the data, please contact us at govsurveys@esds.ac.uk and give
us details of your publication. If you would be happy for us to publish something
on our web site, for example the research
story on smoking, please let us know.
Data collectors and distributors should
be acknowledged in publications.
