A comparison of the 2011 Census and the Labour Force Survey (LFS) labour market indicators

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This paper examines the differences in labour market indicators between the 2011 Census and the LFS and sets out potential reasons why these differences will occur. The LFS is the main source of aggregate labour market statistics in the UK as it is focused primarily on labour market issues designed to elicit responses in line with internationally agreed definitions for economic activity. The Census on the other hand provides an accurate snapshot across a range of household characteristics at a detailed geographical level which is very useful for the analysis of population sub groups. There are various reasons why there will be differences in the outputs from these two sources. These include coverage and data collection issues, proxy responses, coding and classification differences between the Census and the LFS, sampling variability and the selfcompletion nature of the Census. The main differences observed in this analysis are the following;

  • The Census estimates that there are 352,000 more household residents in the labour market, aged 16-64, in England and Wales than the LFS. Note that this excludes all residents of communal establishments.
  • The Census estimates a higher number of people who are economically active, mainly those in employment, with a corresponding lower number of people who are economically inactive.
  • The Census estimates that there are 602,000 more people who are employed (employment rate of 71.8 per cent) than the LFS (employment rate of 70.8 per cent) while estimating that there are 28,000 fewer unemployed people (unemployment rate of 7.5 per cent) compared to the LFS (unemployment rate of 7.7 per cent).
  • Most of the observed differences are for women, with the Census estimating that there are 538,000 more economically active women than the LFS and 272,000 fewer economically inactive women than the LFS.

Published : 11th December 2012

Publisher : Office for National Statistics  [ More From This Publisher ]

Rights : Office for National Statistics

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