Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Labour Force Survey Annual Eurostat Datasets form the UK component of the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU LFS), and consist of a subset of core variables from the UK Quarterly Labour Force Survey (held at the UK Data Archive under GN 33246), alongside primary and secondary derived variables computed by Eurostat from the core variables supplied. The data comprise seasonal or calendar quarters, depending on the date, and are not directly comparable with the UK QLFS quarters. Although all datasets in this series are called 'annual', from 1999-2008 they only include data for quarter two of the survey year, as the questions were only asked in this quarter. From 2009, the questions were asked all year. Quarterly EU LFS datasets from 1999 onwards are also available (see under GN 33366) and 'ad hoc' modules (run each year to supplement the information from the core EU LFS questionnaire) are available from 2002 onwards (see under GN 33400).

Users should note that the LFS Eurostat datasets available from the UK Data Archive comprise UK data only, and no data from other EU countries are included here. Further information about the EU LFS can be found on the Eurostat EU Labour Force Survey webpage.

The UK 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 and 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. Between 1984 and 1991 the survey was carried out annually, and moved to a quarterly cycle (the QLFS) from May 1992. Further information may be found in the main LFS documentation (see link below).

LFS Documentation (main LFS)
Besides the EU LFS documentation (see below), documentation is also available to accompany the main UK LFS datasets available from the Archive. This largely consists of the latest version of each document alongside the appropriate questionnaire for the year concerned. However, LFS documentation volumes are updated periodically by ONS, so users are advised to check the ONS LFS User Guidance pages before commencing analysis.

Cheng-Wen Wu

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