Working in Europe: Gender differences
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Annex: Data sources
The main data source used in the Eurostat publications cited in this report is the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU LFS).
The EU LFS is a quarterly large sample survey covering the population in private households in the EU Member States, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries (except Lichtenstein) and the candidate countries. It provides quarterly results on labour participation of people aged 15 years and over, as well as on persons outside the labour force. People enrolled in military or community services are not included.
The EU LFS micro data collection began in 1983. From 1998, the EU LFS has progressively become a continuous quarterly survey. This transition from a yearly to a quarterly survey was completed in 2005. The national statistical institutes are responsible for selecting the sample, preparing the questionnaires, conducting the direct interviews among households, and forwarding the results to Eurostat in accordance with the common coding scheme. The sampling rates vary between 0.2% and 3.3% across the countries. To ensure that comparable data are produced by the national statistical institutes the following measures are taken:
- same concepts and definitions are used;
- the guidelines of the International Labour Organization (ILO) are followed;
- common classifications are used – NACE (Rev. 1, from 2005 Rev. 1.1), ISCO 88(COM), ISCED 1997 and NUTS;
- the same set of characteristics in each countryare recorded (for more information, see The European Labour Force Survey. Methods and definitions – 2001 (778Kb PDF)).
The data for the paper on The flexibility of working time arrangements for women and men (97Kb PDF) (Eurostat, 2007c) are from the ad hoc module on work organisation and working time arrangements which was included in the EU LFS carried out in 2004 (for further information, see the Final report of the task force for evaluating the 2004 LFS ad hoc module on work organisation and working time arrangements (1.2Mb PDF)). Ad hoc modules have been added to the EU LFS every year since 1999.
| Year | Topic | Commission regulation (EC) |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Entry of young people into the labour market | In preparation |
| 2008 | Labour market situation of migrants and their immediate descendants | No. 102/2007 |
| 2007 | Accidents at work and work-related health problems | No. 341/2006 |
| 2006 | Transition from work to retirement | No. 388/2005 |
| 2005 | Reconciliation between work and family life | No. 29/2004 |
| 2004 | Work organisation and working time arrangements | No. 247/2003 |
| 2003 | Lifelong learning | No. 1313/2002 |
| 2002 | Employment of disabled people | No. 1566/2001 |
| 2001 | Length and patterns of working time | No. 1578/2000 |
| 2000 | Transition from school to working life | No. 1925/1999 |
| 1999 | Accidents at work and occupational diseases | No. 1571/98 |
Source: Eurostat, EU LFS ad-hoc modules, 2007
Data for Men and women participating in labour market policies – 2004 (126Kb PDF) are from the Eurostat labour market policy database. The new European database on labour market policies was initiated in 1996 by a small task force, comprising seven Member States and two Commission directorates. The aim was to develop a database that would provide the Commission with comparable data on expenditure on and participation in labour market policy interventions, which each Member State implemented to combat unemployment. The data collection on labour market policy interventions was launched jointly with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for the first time in 2005.
The statistical unit in this data collection is the labour market intervention, as defined in the labour market policy methodology. For each intervention, the labour market policy database collects quantitative data on expenditure and participants together with qualitative data, which apply to and describe the intervention. The data sources used are administrative sources on labour market policy expenditure and participants, which are usually provided by the Ministry of Labour, public employment services agencies and in a few cases from a national statistical office of a Member State (for more information, see Labour Market Policy. Eurostat metadata in SDDS format: Summary methodology and Labour market policy database – methodology. revision of June 2006 (2.5Mb PDF)).
Rainer Trinczek, Technical University Munich, Germany
EF/08/34/EN
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