| dc.description.abstract | in 1960 to collect comparable data on employment and
unemployment from all six Member States of the then
European Community by means of a labour force survey.
Since that date, the number of Member States has risen to
fifteen and the character of the European labour market has
been transformed by the radical changes which have taken
place, for example in activity rates, in the allocation of
working-time, and in the distribution of employment across
the various sectors of the economy.
Throughout this period, the institutions of the European
Union have included the issues of employment and
unemployment among their highest priorities. Both the
economic and the social implications of recent trends in
these areas have been regularly examined at meetings of
the Council of Europe, which has repeatedly stressed the
importance of monitoring such developments. The demand
for accurate and comparable information on the labour
market has consequently become progressively more
urgent.
In this context, the role of the EU Labour Force Survey has
gained steadily in importance, and is now universally
recognised as an indispensable tool for observing labour
market developments and for taking the appropriate policy
measures. The LFS is the only source of information in
these areas to provide data which is truly comparable in the
sense of being independent of the national administrative
and legislative framework. Among the statistical instruments
available in the European Union, the LFS is unique for the
sample-size it covers, for the length of the time-series which
it offers, and for the unrivalled picture it can provide of
economic and social developments from the very earliest
days of the European Community right up to the present
day.
During the lifetime of the survey, the need has also been
recognised to be continually alert for any adaptations
needed to meet changes in information requirements. The
general methodology employed, together with a host of
details concerning the definitions used and the practical
implementation, have therefore been subject to continual
evolution. Eurostat, which is responsible for the
dissemination of the results of the survey at European Union
level, has been conscious that accurate and up-to-date
information on these aspects is indispensable to
interpretation of the results. This information has therefore
been published on a regular basis under the title Labour
Force Survey: Methods and Definitions, of which several
editions, documenting the successive changes made, have
appeared in 1977, 1985, 1988,1992 and 1996.
The ongoing development of the European Union has led to
changed information requirements, which meant that a
revision of the survey was necessary. Council Regulation N°
577/98 is the outcome of four years' work with the national
experts of all the Member States and describes the new
framework for the Community Survey with effect from 1998.
The purpose of this publication is to provide the necessary
information for those who, from 1998 on, will organise and
use the survey. It covers the main technical aspects of the
survey, basic concepts and definitions, a detailed list of
variables and explanatory notes for compiling and
interpreting the data.
Eurostat wishes to thank the experts responsible for the
national labour force surveys in the Member States for their
help in compiling this methodological information on the
operation of the European Union Labour Force Survey. | en_US |
