Labour Force Survey

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a survey of households in Great Britain and Northern Ireland that provides information about people's employment status and conditions. It asks individuals about their current and previous jobs, as well as enquiring about related topics such as training, qualifications, income and disability. The survey is carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the data are used by government to develop and monitor labour market policies.

The survey is continuous, with a sample drawn each quarter of approximately 57,000 households, representing around 135,000 respondents, selected from the Postcode Address File. Each sampled household is interviewed for five successive quarters, with some questions varying from quarter to quarter. Households are interviewed face-to-face in the first quarter in which they are included and afterwards by telephone. The initial response rate in Great Britain is generally over 70 per cent.

The LFS began in 1973. It was carried out every two years until 1983. Between 1984 and 1991, data were collected annually and the survey has been running in its present form, with quarterly sampling, since spring 1992.

The strengths of the LFS are that it has the largest coverage of any household survey and can thus generate statistics for small geographical areas. In addition, the sampling errors are small, as a result of the wave structure of the survey.

The survey covers a large range of employment-related variables and non-employment-related variables, allowing cross-linking analyses to be undertaken (for example, earnings against educational attainment).

It is the source recommended by ONS for certain employment-related statistics, for example, estimates of the number of people in employment and unemployed.

One of the disadvantages of the LFS is that the sample design provides no guarantee of adequate coverage of any particular industry, as the survey is not industrially stratified.

The LFS coverage also omits communal establishments, excepting NHS housing and student halls of residence. Members of the armed forces are only included if they live in private accommodation. Workers younger than 16 are also not covered.

This page last revised: Monday, 16 October 2005