Population by care responsibilities and degree of urbanisation

The EU has a longstanding commitment to promote work-life balance. This has resulted in targets that are set to improve the provision of childcare and thereby addressing the work-life balance challenges faced by parents and caregivers. In order to monitor and to investigate the progress in this area further, the implementation of the EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) ad hoc module 2018 on reconciliation between work and family life is of high importance.
The module is split in 3 submodules and includes 11 variables,.
Submodule 1: Care responsibilities
The first submodule aims to establish whether or not people, aged 18-64, have care responsibilities for children (<15 years)="" and="" other="" incapacitated="" relatives="" (15="" years="" and="" older);="" to="" what="" extend="" they="" use="" professional="" childcare="" services="" and="" how="" childcare="" influence="" people’s="">
This submodule includes 4 variables:
CARERES: Existence of care responsibilities.CHCARUSE: Use of childcare services.CHCAROBS: Factors for not using childcare services.CHCAREFF: Effect of childcare responsibilities on employment.
Submodule 2: Flexibility of work arrangements
The aim of the second submodule is to investigate, in the context of reconciling work and family life, the degree of flexibility offered at work.
This submodule includes 3 variables:
POSSTEND: Working time flexibility for care.POSORGWT: Flexibility for taking whole days off for care.WORKOBS: Main obstacle at work for reconciliation.                    
Submodule 3: Career breaks and parental leave
The third submodule targets (i) to identify career breaks in relation to the care of children (in particular parental leave) or other dependent persons and (ii) to investigate the duration of these particular career breaks.
This submodule includes 4 variables:
STOPWORK: Career break for childcare;STOPLENG: Complete length of career breaks for childcare;PARLEAV: Use of family leave;DEREDSTP: Career break for incapacitated relatives.                                             
Detailed information on the relevant methodology of the ad hoc module (including the Commission regulation and explanatory notes) as well as documentation from each participating country (national questionnaires and interviewers instructions) can be found on EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) – ad hoc modules.