Quarterly Labour Force Survey Household Dataset, July - September, 2020

<b>Background</b><br> The <i>Labour Force Survey</i> (LFS) is a unique source of information using international definitions of employment and unemployment and economic inactivity, together with a wide range of related topics such as occupation, training, hours of work and personal characteristics of household members aged 16 years and over. It is used to inform social, economic and employment policy. The LFS was first conducted biennially from 1973-1983. Between 1984 and 1991 the survey was carried out annually and consisted of a quarterly survey conducted throughout the year and a 'boost' survey in the spring quarter (data were then collected seasonally). From 1992 quarterly data were made available, with a quarterly sample size approximately equivalent to that of the previous annual data. The survey then became known as the <i>Quarterly Labour Force Survey</i> (QLFS). From December 1994, data gathering for Northern Ireland moved to a full quarterly cycle to match the rest of the country, so the QLFS then covered the whole of the UK (though some additional annual Northern Ireland LFS datasets are also held at the UK Data Archive). Further information on the background to the QLFS may be found in the documentation.<br> <br> <b>Household datasets</b><br> Up to 2015, the LFS household datasets were produced twice a year (April-June and October-December) from the corresponding quarter's individual-level data. From January 2015 onwards, they are now produced each quarter alongside the main QLFS. The household datasets include all the usual variables found in the individual-level datasets, with the exception of those relating to income, and are intended to facilitate the analysis of the economic activity patterns of whole households. It is recommended that the existing individual-level LFS datasets continue to be used for any analysis at individual level, and that the LFS household datasets be used for analysis involving household or family-level data. From January 2011, a pseudonymised household identifier variable (HSERIALP) is also included in the main quarterly LFS dataset instead.<br><br><span style="font-weight: bold;">New reweighting policy</span><br>Following the <a href="http://doc.ukdataservice.ac.uk/doc/8343/mrdoc/pdf/biennial_lfs_aps_reweighting_policy.pdf" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">new reweighting policy</a><a href="http://doc.ukdataservice.ac.uk/doc/8343/mrdoc/pdf/biennial_lfs_aps_reweighting_policy.pdf" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></a> ONS has reviewed the latest population estimates made available during 2019 and have decided not to carry out a 2019 LFS and APS reweighting exercise. Therefore, the next reweighting exercise will take place in 2020. These will incorporate the 2019 Sub-National Population Projection data (published in May 2020) and 2019 Mid-Year Estimates (published in June 2020). It is expected that reweighted Labour Market aggregates and microdata will be published towards the end of 2020/early 2021.<br> <br> <b>Change to coding of missing values for household series</b><br> From 1996-2013, all missing values in the household datasets were set to one '-10' category instead of the separate '-8' and '-9' categories. For that period, the ONS introduced a new imputation process for the LFS household datasets and it was necessary to code the missing values into one new combined category ('-10'), to avoid over-complication. This was also in line with the Annual Population Survey household series of the time. The change was applied to the back series during 2010 to ensure continuity for analytical purposes. From 2013 onwards, the -8 and -9 categories have been reinstated.<br> <br> <b>LFS Documentation</b><br> The documentation available from the Archive to accompany LFS datasets largely consists of the latest version of each volume alongside the appropriate questionnaire for the year concerned. However, LFS volumes are updated periodically by ONS, so users are advised to check the ONS <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/method-quality/specific/labour-market/labour-market-statistics/index.html" title="Labour Force Survey User Guidance">LFS User Guidance</a> page before commencing analysis.<br> <br> <b> Additional data derived from the QLFS</b><br> The Archive also holds further QLFS series: End User Licence (EUL) quarterly datasets; Secure Access datasets (see below); two-quarter and five-quarter longitudinal datasets; quarterly, annual and ad hoc module datasets compiled for Eurostat; and some additional annual Northern Ireland datasets. <br> <br> <b>End User Licence and Secure Access QLFS Household datasets</b><br> Users should note that there are two discrete versions of the QLFS household datasets. One is available under the standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement, and the other is a Secure Access version. Secure Access household datasets for the QLFS are available from 2009 onwards, and include additional, detailed variables not included in the standard EUL versions. Extra variables that typically can be found in the Secure Access versions but not in the EUL versions relate to: geography; date of birth, including day; education and training; household and family characteristics; employment; unemployment and job hunting; accidents at work and work-related health problems; nationality, national identity and country of birth; occurence of learning difficulty or disability; and benefits. For full details of variables included, see data dictionary documentation. The Secure Access version (see SN 7674) has more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard EUL. Prospective users will need to gain ONS Accredited Researcher status, complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables. Users are strongly advised to first obtain the standard EUL version of the data to see if they are sufficient for their research requirements.<br> <br> <b>Changes to variables in QLFS Household EUL datasets</b><br> In order to further protect respondent confidentiality, ONS have made some changes to variables available in the EUL datasets. From July-September 2015 onwards, 4-digit industry class is available for main job only, meaning that 3-digit industry group is the most detailed level available for second and last job.<br> <br> <b>Review of imputation methods for LFS Household data - changes to missing values</b><br> A review of the imputation methods used in LFS Household and Family analysis resulted in a change from the January-March 2015 quarter onwards. It was no longer considered appropriate to impute any personal characteristic variables (e.g. religion, ethnicity, country of birth, nationality, national identity, etc.) using the LFS donor imputation method. This method is primarily focused to ensure the 'economic status' of all individuals within a household is known, allowing analysis of the combined economic status of households. This means that from 2015 larger amounts of missing values ('-8'/-9') will be present in the data for these personal characteristic variables than before. Therefore if users need to carry out any time series analysis of households/families which also includes personal characteristic variables covering this time period, then it is advised to filter off 'ioutcome=3' cases from all periods to remove this inconsistent treatment of non-responders.<br> <br> <b>Variables DISEA and LNGLST</b><br> Dataset A08 (Labour market status of disabled people) which ONS suspended due to an apparent discontinuity between April to June 2017 and July to September 2017 is now available. As a result of this apparent discontinuity and the inconclusive investigations at this stage, comparisons should be made with caution between April to June 2017 and subsequent time periods. However users should note that the estimates are not seasonally adjusted, so some of the change between quarters could be due to seasonality. Further recommendations on historical comparisons of the estimates will be given in November 2018 when ONS are due to publish estimates for July to September 2018. <br> <br> An article explaining the quality assurance investigations that have been conducted so far is available on the <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/methodologies/analysisofthediscontinuityinthelabourforcesurveydisabilitydataapriltojune2017tojulytoseptember2017" target="_blank">ONS Methodology</a> webpage. For any queries about Dataset A08 please email [e-mail].<br> <br> <p><span style="font-weight: bold;">Latest edition information</span></p><p>For the second edition (October 2021), the 2020 household weight was added to the data.</p>

<b>背景</b><br> 劳动力调查（Labour Force Survey, LFS）是一套独特的信息来源，采用国际通用的就业、失业及经济非活动状态定义，同时涵盖职业、培训、工作时长以及16岁及以上家庭成员的个人特征等广泛相关主题。该调查成果可为社会、经济与就业政策制定提供参考。LFS最初于1973年至1983年间以两年一度的频率开展。1984年至1991年期间，调查转为年度开展，包含全年进行的季度调查与春季季度的“补充”调查（后续数据按季度收集）。1992年起，季度数据正式对外发布，季度样本量大致与此前年度数据的样本量相当，该调查此后也被称为<i>季度劳动力调查（Quarterly Labour Force Survey, QLFS）</i>。1994年12月起，北爱尔兰的数据采集转为完整的季度周期，以与英国其他地区保持一致，自此QLFS覆盖全英国（不过英国数据档案馆仍留存有部分额外的北爱尔兰年度LFS数据集）。关于QLFS背景的更多细节可参阅相关文档。<br><br> <b>家庭数据集</b><br> 截至2015年，LFS家庭数据集均基于对应季度的个体层面数据，每年发布两次（4-6月与10-12月）。2015年1月起，家庭数据集改为与QLFS主数据集同步按季度发布。家庭数据集包含个体层面数据集的绝大多数常规变量，但收入相关变量除外，其设计初衷是便于开展全家庭的经济活动模式分析。建议针对个体层面的分析仍使用现有LFS个体层面数据集，而LFS家庭数据集则适用于涉及家庭或家族层面数据的研究。2011年1月起，主季度LFS数据集新增了匿名化家庭识别变量（HSERIALP）。<br><br><span style="font-weight: bold;">新加权政策</span><br> 遵循<a href="http://doc.ukdataservice.ac.uk/doc/8343/mrdoc/pdf/biennial_lfs_aps_reweighting_policy.pdf" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">新加权政策</a>，英国国家统计局（Office for National Statistics, ONS）审阅了2019年期间公布的最新人口估算数据，决定不开展2019年LFS与年度人口调查（Annual Population Survey, APS）的加权工作。下一次加权工作将于2020年启动，将纳入2019年地方人口预测数据（2020年5月发布）与2019年年中人口估算数据（2020年6月发布）。预计重新加权后的劳动力市场汇总数据与微观数据将于2020年末/2021年初发布。<br><br> <b>家庭序列缺失值编码规则变更</b><br> 1996年至2013年间，家庭数据集的所有缺失值均被统一归类为“-10”类别，而非此前分离的“-8”与“-9”类别。在此期间，ONS为LFS家庭数据集引入了全新的插补流程，为避免分析过于复杂，需将缺失值合并为单一的“-10”类别，这也与当时的年度人口调查家庭序列规则保持一致。为保证分析的连续性，2010年对历史序列应用了该变更规则。2013年起，“-8”与“-9”类别恢复使用。<br><br> <b>LFS文档</b><br> 档案馆提供的LFS数据集配套文档主要包含各卷册的最新版本与对应年度的调查问卷。但ONS会定期更新LFS卷册，因此建议用户在开展分析前，先访问ONS的<a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/method-quality/specific/labour-market/labour-market-statistics/index.html" title="Labour Force Survey User Guidance">LFS用户指南</a>页面。<br><br> <b>QLFS衍生附加数据</b><br> 档案馆还留存有其他QLFS序列：最终用户许可（End User Licence, EUL）季度数据集；安全访问数据集（详见下文）；两季度与五季度纵向数据集；为欧盟统计局（Eurostat）编制的季度、年度及特设模块数据集；以及部分额外的北爱尔兰年度数据集。<br><br> <b>QLFS家庭数据集的最终用户许可与安全访问版本</b><br> 用户需注意，QLFS家庭数据集存在两个独立版本：一种遵循标准最终用户许可（End User Licence, EUL）协议，另一种为安全访问版本。QLFS的安全访问家庭数据集自2009年起开放，包含标准EUL版本未收录的额外详细变量。安全访问版本相较于标准EUL版本，通常额外包含以下类别的变量：地理信息；出生日期（含具体日期）；教育与培训；家庭与家族特征；就业、失业与求职情况；工作事故与职业健康问题；国籍、民族身份与出生国家；学习障碍或残疾情况；以及福利补贴。关于收录变量的完整详情，请参阅数据字典文档。安全访问版本（参见SN 7674）的访问限制严于标准EUL版本：潜在用户需获得ONS认证研究员身份，填写额外的申请表，并向数据所有者明确说明需要访问额外变量的理由。强烈建议用户先获取标准EUL版本的数据，确认其是否满足研究需求。<br><br> <b>QLFS家庭EUL数据集的变量变更</b><br> 为进一步保护受访者隐私，ONS对EUL数据集的可用变量做出了调整。自2015年7-9月起，仅主要工作岗位可提供4位数行业分类，第二及最后一份工作岗位的行业分类最多仅可获取3位数组别数据。<br><br> <b>LFS家庭数据插补方法回顾——缺失值规则变更</b><br> 对LFS家庭与家族分析所用插补方法的回顾导致自2015年1-3月季度起出现规则变更。不再适宜使用LFS捐赠者插补方法来插补任何个人特征变量（如宗教信仰、种族、出生国家、国籍、民族身份等）。该插补方法原本主要用于确保家庭内所有个体的“经济状态”信息完整，以便开展家庭整体经济状态的分析。这意味着自2015年起，这些个人特征变量的数据中，缺失值（“-8”/“-9”）的占比将较此前有所提升。因此，若用户需要开展包含该时间段个人特征变量的家庭/家族时间序列分析，建议从所有时间段中过滤掉“ioutcome=3”的样本，以消除这种无应答处理方式不一致的问题。<br><br> <b>变量DISEA与LNGLST</b><br> ONS因2017年4-6月与2017年7-9月的数据间存在明显不连续性而暂停的A08数据集（残疾人劳动力市场状态）现已恢复开放。鉴于此次明显的不连续性及现阶段调查尚未得出定论，在2017年4-6月与后续时间段的数据间进行比较时需格外谨慎。此外，用户需注意，该估算数据未经过季节性调整，因此季度间的部分变化可能源于季节性因素。ONS将于2018年11月发布2018年7-9月的估算数据时，就该数据集的历史比较提供进一步建议。<br><br> 一篇介绍迄今为止已开展的质量保证调查的文章可在<a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/methodologies/analysisofthediscontinuityinthelabourforcesurveydisabilitydataapriltojune2017tojulytoseptember2017" target="_blank">ONS方法论</a>网页查阅。若对A08数据集有任何疑问，请发送邮件至[e-mail]。<br><br> <p><span style="font-weight: bold;">最新版本信息</span></p><p>第二版（2021年10月）新增了2020年家庭权重数据。</p>