Labour Statistics

1
Labour Statistics at Statistics Canada
RIAL Workshop on Labour Migration and Labour
Market Information Systems
Geoff Bowlby Labour Statistics Division,
Statistics Canada
February 25, 2009
2
Statistics Canada Labour Market Information

• Many sources of LMI
• Labour Force Survey
• Survey of Employment, Payroll and Hours
• Census
• Employment Insurance
• Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics
• Labour Income (System of National Accounts)
• Labour productivity estimates (System of National
  Accounts)
• Workplace and Employee Survey

3
Statistics Canada LMI Conceptual Framework
Population (15, in scope)
In the labour force
Not in labour force
Employing businesses
Unemployed
Employed
LFS Census SLID WES
Employees
Jobs
SEPH WES
Self-employed
Job vacancies
LABOUR SUPPLY (potential)
LABOUR DEMAND
LABOUR SUPPLY (current)
4
Use of current system

• Labour Force Survey
• One of the worlds largest surveys
• Survey of Employment, Payroll and Hours
• Employment estimates based on a monthly census of
  businesses
• Census of Population
• Covering 20 of the population, every 5 years
• Employment Insurance
• A monthly census of all EI records, for the LFS
  reference week

5
Limitations of current system

• Labour Force Survey
• Despite its size, cannot provide desired detail
• Survey of Employment, Payroll and Hours
• Limited set of variables
• Census of Population
• Frequency, timeliness
• Employment Insurance
• Not all the unemployed, only one week of the
  month

6
Gaps in current system

• Many known gaps. Probably the largest are
• Lack of small domain estimates (sub-provincial,
  detailed occupation data) for the intercensal
  period
• No vacancy information
• Employment quality data
• Regular surveying of older workers
• Other
• Mass lay-off statistics
• More regular, comprehensive EI stats program
• LFS content, sample size
• No coverage on-reserve

7
Changes to the System

• Labour Force Survey
• No major plans for content
• Possible move to internet collection
• Possible collection on Siksika First Nation
• Census Labour (2011)
• Removal of unpaid work questions
• Expansion of travel to work
• More modes of transportation
• Duration of travel to work
• Car pooling

8
Changes to the System

• SEPH
• Major improvement to wage and hours data
• Expansion of analysis and dissemination