Labour Force Survey, March 2020 [Canada] [Rebased 2025]

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) provides estimates of employment and unemployment which are among the most timely and important measures of the performance of the Canadian economy. With the release of the survey results only 10 days after data are collected, the LFS is the first of Statistics Canada’s major monthly economic reports to be released. The methodology of the LFS is optimized to produce reliable information about month-to-month changes in key labour market indicators, such as the employment and unemployment rates.<br><br>Statistics Canada has an established history of applying a standard revision to its LFS estimates following the release of final population estimates from the most recent census. Data are revised to adopt the most recent geography, industry and occupation classifications; to take advantage of recent observations to fine-tune seasonal adjustment factors; or to introduce methodological enhancements. These revisions ensure that survey estimates accurately reflect the Canadian labour market, while having minimal impact on the comparability of labour market indicators, such as employment, unemployment, and participation rates over time. Updates made as part of this revision maintain coherence in the estimates of month-to-month and year-over-year changes.<br><br>The purpose of this document is to explain each of the revisions implemented in January 2025. It should be noted that these changes do not involve modifications to the questionnaire nor to the survey content. The following is a summary of each change:<ul><br><li><b>Population rebasing</b>: Until December 2024, the series of labour force estimates had been based on population control totals, derived from 2016 Census data (adjusted for net undercoverage). As of January 2025, the estimates have been adjusted to reflect population data from the 2021 Census and its coverage studies.</li><li><b>Geographical boundaries</b>: Census metropolitan areas (CMAs), economic regions (ERs), census agglomerations (CAs), and census subdivisions (CSDs) are now based on Standard Geographical Classification (SGC) 2021 - Volume I, The Classification. With this change, six new CMAs have been added (Fredericton, New Brunswick; Drummondville, Quebec; Red Deer, Alberta; Kamloops, Chilliwack, and Nanaimo, British Columbia). Boundaries for Employment Insurance Economic Regions (EIERs) remain unchanged. These new geographic areas are used starting from January 2011.</li><li><b>Gender</b>: To align with the departmental standard Classification of gender, LFS estimates now incorporate the concept of gender, which was introduced in the 2021 Census of Population and added to the LFS questionnaire in January 2022. As such, LFS data are based on sex of person up to December 2021 and gender of person from January 2022 onward. Although gender and sex at birth are two different concepts, this change does not cause a significant break in the trend because the two concepts produce very similar distributions. All data products from the LFS now adopt the term “gender” for all years and periods.</li><li><b>Industry and occupation classification update</b>: The LFS now uses the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Canada 2022 Version 1.0. Improvements were also made to the historical coding of occupation using National Occupational Classification (NOC) 2021 Version 1.0. These changes have minimal impact on estimates in published data tables and are primarily observed in the microdata and some custom tabulations. Revisions were extended back to 1987 for industry and 1998 for occupation.</li><li>Updates to landing month variable for immigrants.</li></ul>

劳动力调查（Labour Force Survey, LFS）提供的就业与失业估计数据，是衡量加拿大经济运行状况最及时且重要的指标之一。该调查在数据采集完成仅10天后便发布结果，因此LFS估计数据是首个公布的主要月度经济数据序列。

加拿大劳动力调查诞生于第二次世界大战结束后，彼时加拿大正处于从战时经济向和平时期经济的转型阶段，社会迫切需要掌握劳动力市场的大规模变革情况，因此该调查旨在满足劳动力市场对可靠、及时统计数据的需求。LFS的核心目标是将劳动年龄人口划分为就业、失业、不在劳动力队伍三类互斥群体，并为每一类群体提供描述性与解释性统计数据。

依托LFS数据可计算得到广为人知的失业率，以及就业率、劳动参与率等其他标准劳动力市场指标。LFS还可按行业、职业、公共与私营部门、工作时长等维度提供就业估计数据，且所有统计结果均可结合多种人口统计特征进行交叉分类。统计估计数据覆盖加拿大全国、各省份、各地区以及大量省以下区域。针对雇员群体，调查还会统计其工资水平、工会身份、岗位稳定性以及工作单位规模等信息。加拿大各级政府可利用这些数据开展就业项目的评估与规划工作。加拿大就业与社会发展部会利用区域失业率，为特定就业保险区域内的申请人判定其保险福利的申领资格、待遇标准与发放时长。私营与公共部门的劳动力市场分析师、经济学家、咨询顾问、规划人员、预测专家以及学者也会使用该数据集。

本公开使用微数据文件包含从劳动力调查（LFS）中采集的多维度变量的非聚合数据。文件既涵盖了家庭所有成员的个人特征信息，也包含了15岁及以上家庭成员的详细劳动力市场特征数据。

个人特征信息包括年龄、性别、婚姻状况、受教育程度以及家庭特征。详细劳动力市场特征则涵盖就业相关信息与失业相关信息：就业信息包括用工类型、标准工作时长与实际工作时长、雇员的小时与周工资、当前或最近一份工作所属的行业与职业、所属公共/私营部门、工会身份、带薪与无薪加班时长、岗位稳定性、缺勤工时、在职时长；失业信息则包括失业时长、求职方式以及意向岗位类型。此外，数据集还提供了学生在学年与暑期的劳动力市场特征信息，以及其全日制/非全日制就学状态与就读院校类型相关数据。

**LFS修订情况**：劳动力调查会定期开展修订，修订原因包括采用最新的地理、行业与职业分类标准，利用新观测数据微调季节调整因子，或是引入方法学改进。加拿大LFS此前分别于2011年、2015年与2021年开展过修订，最近一次修订完成于2023年。

本次修订的第一项重大变更为过渡至《国家职业分类（National Occupational Classification, NOC）2021 V1.0》，1987年及以后的所有LFS序列均已按照新分类标准完成修订。第二项重大变更为对LFS数据处理流程进行方法学改进，该改进适用于2006年1月及以后的所有LFS序列。第三项重大变更为对季节调整因子进行修订，该修订适用于2002年1月及以后的LFS序列。如需查阅本LFS数据集的历史版本列表，可点击"Versions"（版本）标签查看。