Labour Force Survey, December 2023 [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，以下简称LFS）是加拿大统计局开展的针对加拿大家庭的月度调查。该调查诞生于第二次世界大战结束后，旨在满足战后从战争经济向和平经济转型过程中，劳动力市场发生剧烈变革背景下，对可靠且及时的劳动力市场数据的需求。LFS的核心目标是将劳动年龄人口划分为三个互斥的劳动力状态类别：就业、失业与非劳动力，并为每一类群体提供描述性与解释性数据。

在数据采集完成后仅10天便发布调查结果，LFS估算数据是首批公布的主要月度经济数据序列之一。LFS是加拿大官方失业率的统计来源，其中包括加拿大就业与社会发展部（Employment and Social Development Canada）用于计算就业保险（Employment Insurance，EI）资格与福利标准的失业率数据。该调查的数据还可用于分析主要劳动力市场趋势，如各工业部门的就业结构变动、工作时长与劳动力参与率变化等。

此外，LFS还可提供按行业、职业、公共与私营部门、工作时长等维度划分的就业估算数据，且可结合多种人口统计特征进行交叉分类。统计估算覆盖加拿大全国、各省份、各地区以及大量省以下区域。对于雇员群体，调查还会生成薪资水平、工会参与状况、岗位稳定性以及企业规模等相关数据。