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5. The household section of the Labour Force Survey provides data on employment in families

The data collected with the Labour Force Survey are used to compile statistics on labour force participation, employment, unemployment and working hours of the population aged between 15 and 74. The data content of the Survey is based on an EU regulation, and approximately 12,000 persons are interviewed for it every month. The information provided by the respondents is used to produce a picture of the activities of the entire population aged between 15 and 74.

In most European countries the Labour Force Survey data are collected from a sample of households, which means that all members of a household living at the same address are interviewed at the same time. Besides Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland are the only other countries were the sample is comprised of individual persons, i.e. only the target persons drawn into the sample are interviewed.

However, the EU regulation also requires data concerning households and in Finland this has been solved by exploiting the panel nature of the Labour Force Survey. In the Labour Force Survey the same person is usually interviewed five times during 18 months. In addition to the basic interview, a household interview is conducted on the fifth interview round to ascertain the members who belong to the household of the interviewee and the activity of the household members aged 15 to 74 on the labour market. The data obtained this way enable examinations of, for instance, employment in the family and the status of each spouse on the labour market.

The household data cover approximately 59,000 persons representing 24,000 households (figures from 2009). So that the data would describe the whole population, a supplementing sample is added to it of households in which all members are aged 75 or over, even though they are not interviewed in the Labour Force Survey.

The household data of the Labour Force Survey have been collected by the present method since 2003 and the data can be published starting from the year 2004.

Source: Labour force survey 2009. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Laura Hulkko (09) 1734 2611, Anna Pärnänen (09) 1734 2607, tyovoimatutkimus@stat.fi

Director in charge: Riitta Harala

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Updated 12.10.2010