Year: 2015
Abstract:
(StatCan Product) Customization details:  This information product has been customized to present information on labour force estimates by industry and by occupation (2 and 3 digits) for Alberta’s Economic Regions (excluding Edmonton and Calgary) from 2000 to 2013 using annual averages.  The LFS characteristics presented are:  - Labour Force     - Employment  The economic regions presented are:  - Lethbridge – Medicine Hat - Camrose – Drumheller - Banff- Jasper – Rocky Mountain House - Red Deer - Athabasca – Grande Prairie – Peace River - Wood Buffalo – Cold Lake   For more information about the occupations and industries presented, contact OSI.Support@gov.ab.ca  Labour Force Survey  The Canadian Labour Force Survey was developed following the Second World War to satisfy a need for reliable and timely data on the labour market. Information was urgently required on the massive labour market changes involved in the transition from a war to a peace-time economy. The main objective of the LFS is to divide the working-age population into three mutually exclusive classifications - employed, unemployed, and not in the labour force - and to provide descriptive and explanatory data on each of these.  Target population  The LFS covers the civilian, non-institutionalized population 15 years of age and over. It is conducted nationwide, in both the provinces and the territories. Excluded from the survey's coverage are: persons living on reserves and other Aboriginal settlements in the provinces; full-time members of the Canadian Armed Forces and the institutionalized population. These groups together represent an exclusion of less than 2% of the Canadian population aged 15 and over. National Labour Force Survey estimates are derived using the results of the LFS in the provinces. Territorial LFS results are not included in the national estimates, but are published separately.  Documentation – Labour Force Survey  Instrument design  The current LFS questionnaire was introduced in 1997. At that time, significant changes were made to the questionnaire in order to address existing data gaps, improve data quality and make more use of the power of Computer Assisted Interviewing (CAI). The changes incorporated included the addition of many new questions. For example, questions were added to collect information about wage rates, union status, job permanency and workplace size for the main job of currently employed employees. Other additions included new questions to collect information about hirings and separations, and expanded response category lists that split existing codes into more detailed categories.  Sampling  This is a sample survey with a cross-sectional design.  Data sources  Responding to this survey is mandatory. Data are collected directly from survey respondents. Data collection for the LFS is carried out each month during the week following the LFS reference week. The reference week is normally the week containing the 15th day of the month. LFS interviews are conducted by telephone by interviewers working out of a regional office CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews) site or by personal visit from a field interviewer. Since 2004, dwellings new to the sample in urban areas are contacted by telephone if the telephone number is available from administrative files, otherwise the dwelling is contacted by a field interviewer. The interviewer first obtains socio-demographic information for each household member and then obtains labour force information for all members aged 15 and over who are not members of the regular armed forces. The majority of subsequent interviews are conducted by telephone. In subsequent monthly interviews the interviewer confirms the socio-demographic information collected in the first month and collects the labour force information for the current month. Persons aged 70 and over are not asked the labour force questions in subsequent interviews, but rather their labour force information is carried over from their first interview. In each dwelling, information about all household members is usually obtained from one knowledgeable household member. Such 'proxy' reporting, which accounts for approximately 65% of the information collected, is used to avoid the high cost and extended time requirements that would be involved in repeat visits or calls necessary to obtain information directly from each respondent.  Error detection  The LFS CAI questionnaire incorporates many features that serve to maximize the quality of the data collected. There are many edits built into the CAI questionnaire to compare the entered data against unusual values, as well as to check for logical inconsistencies. Whenever an edit fails, the interviewer is prompted to correct the information (with the help of the respondent when necessary). For most edit failures the interviewer has the ability to override the edit failure if they cannot resolve the apparent discrepancy. As well, for most questions the interviewer has the ability to enter a response of Don't Know or Refused if the respondent does not answer the question. Once the data is received back at head office an extensive series of processing steps is undertaken to thoroughly verify each record received. This includes the coding of industry and occupation information and the review of interviewer entered notes. The editing and imputation phases of processing involve the identification of logically inconsistent or missing information items, and the correction of such conditions. Since the true value of each entry on the questionnaire is not known, the identification of errors can be done only through recognition of obvious inconsistencies (for example, a 15 year-old respondent who is recorded as having last worked in 1940).  Estimation  The final step in the processing of LFS data is the assignment of a weight to each individual record. This process involves several steps. Each record has an initial weight that corresponds to the inverse of the probability of selection. Adjustments are made to this weight to account for non-response that cannot be handled through imputation. In the final weighting step all of the record weights are adjusted so that the aggregate totals will match with independently derived population estimates for various age-sex groups by province and major sub-provincial areas. One feature of the LFS weighting process is that all individuals within a dwelling are assigned the same weight. In January 2000, the LFS introduced a new estimation method called Regression Composite Estimation. This new method was used to re-base all historical LFS data. It is described in the research paper ""Improvements to the Labour Force Survey (LFS)"", Catalogue no. 71F0031X. Additional improvements are introduced over time; they are described in different issues of the same publication.  Data accuracy  Since the LFS is a sample survey, all LFS estimates are subject to both sampling error and non-sampling errors. Non-sampling errors can arise at any stage of the collection and processing of the survey data. These include coverage errors, non-response errors, response errors, interviewer errors, coding errors and other types of processing errors. Non-response to the LFS tends to average about 10% of eligible households. Interviews are instructed to make all reasonable attempts to obtain LFS interviews with members of eligible households. Each month, after all attempts to obtain interviews have been made, a small number of non-responding households remain. For households non-responding to the LFS, a weight adjustment is applied to account for non-responding households. Sampling errors associated with survey estimates are measured using coefficients of variation for LFS estimates as a function of the size of the estimate and the geographic area.
