Using LFS Longitudinal & Household Datasets Marilyn Thomas & William Barnes Office for National Statistics.

Using LFS Longitudinal & Household Datasets

Marilyn Thomas & William Barnes Office for National Statistics

Structure

1 - LFS Longitudinal Datasets

2 - LFS Household Datasets

• What are they & when are they produced?• Who receives them? Access?• What are they used for?• Development plans?

LFS Longitudinal Datasets

What are they & when are they produced?

• 2 quarter & 5 quarter• produced quarterly since 1993• changes in labour market characteristics of the

same linked respondents• datasets include a flow variable• employment, unemployment, economic inactivity

LFS Longitudinal Datasets

Definitions (ILO)• Employment - did paid work in ref week, had job

but away temporarily (e.g. holiday), on gov training or employ programme, or in unpaid family work

• Unemployment – without job, but available to start work in 2 weeks & looked for work in previous 4 weeks, or waiting to start job already obtained

• Economically inactive – neither employed nor unemployed e.g. retired or looking after home

LFS Longitudinal Datasets

Example of 2 quarter flow variable

FlowCategory Description Unweighted Weighted per centEntering

working age Age 15 quarter 1, working age quarter 2 269 180,327EE Employed both quarters 34,549 26,324,784 72.7UE Unemployed quarter 1, employed quarter 2 411 357,047 1.0NE Inactive quarter 1, employed quarter 2 554 478,703 1.3EU Employed quarter 1, unemployed quarter 2 471 391,109 1.1UU Unemployed both quarters 784 681,758 1.9NU Inactive quarter 1, unemployed quarter 2 336 305,351 0.8EN Employed quarter 1, inactive quarter 2 620 459,783 1.3UN Unemployed quarter 1, inactive quarter 2 404 313,667 0.9NN Inactive both quarters 8,944 6,905,055 19.1

Leaving working age

Working age quarter 1, above working age quarter 2 210 140,777

Total 47,552 36,538,361 100.0

Level

LFS Longitudinal Datasets

Who receives them? Access?

• Bank of England• DfES, DWP, DTI, Low Pay Commission, Home

Office, Inland Revenue, HM Treasury• Small Business Service• ESRC• Policy Studies Institute• Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE• Also access through UK Data Archive, University of

Essex.

LFS Longitudinal Datasets

What are they used for?

Examples

• used by the Bank of England as background information to assist understanding of labour market outcomes

• used by the DWP to examine the labour market outcomes of individuals who become disabled during their time as respondents to the LFS

• also articles in Labour Market Trends

LFS Longitudinal Datasets

References

• ‘People leaving economic inactivity: characteristics and flows’ - Andrew McIntyre, LMT, April 2002

• ‘People leaving employment: characteristics and flows’ - Mike Young, LMT, November 2001

• ‘Time series analyses of the Labour Force Survey two-quarter longitudinal datasets’ – Mike Young, LMT, August 2001

LFS Longitudinal Datasets

Development plans?

• Calendar quarters

LFS Household Datasets

What are they & when are they produced?

• LFS datasets designed for analysis at household and family level

• produced twice each year - in spring since 1992 and in autumn since 1995

• recommended for any analysis involving characteristics of household and family units

• datasets include household and family variables and weights

LFS Household Datasets

Some definitions:• Household – a single person, or a group of people

living at the same address who have the address as their only or main residence and either share one main meal a day or share the living accommodation (or both).

• LFS family unit – either a single person, or a married or cohabiting couple on their own, or with their never-married children who have no children of their own, or lone parents with such children.

LFS Household Datasets

Examples of household & family variables:

• type of household & type of family unit• no of working age people in household/family unit• no of dependent children in household/family unit• age of youngest child in household/family unit• labour market status of head of household/family

unit (and partner)• combined labour market status of household/family

unit

LFS Household Datasets

Who receives them? Access?

• DWP, Home Office, HM Treasury, Cabinet Office, Dept of Health, Dept for Transport, Welsh Assembly Gov, Scottish Parliament, DETI Northern Ireland, etc.

• local authorities• TUC• LFS household data also supplied through LFS

Data Service• Also access through UK Data Archive, University of

Essex.

LFS Household Datasets

What are they used for?

• main output: Work and Worklessness Among Households First Release

• published: January (autumn data) and July (spring data)

• used, for example, by DWP to monitor 2 PSA targets

- children in workless households - lone parent employment rate• also articles in Labour Market Trends

LFS Household Datasets

References

‘Families and Work’ - Annette Walling, LMT, July

2005

‘Workless households: results from the spring 2004

LFS’ - Annette Walling, LMT, November 2004

LFS Household Datasets

Development plans?

• Calendar quarters

- published from August 2006

• APS household dataset

- rolling annual dataset published quarterly

- facilitating household & family analysis at local area level

Questions

Questions

email: [email protected]