Coverage issues in the Canadian Labour Force Survey - ARCHIVED

This paper discusses in detail issues dealing with the technical aspects of designing and conducting surveys. It is intended for an audience of survey methodologists.

The Canadian Labour Force Survey (LFS) is one of Statistics Canada's most important surveys. It is a monthly survey that collects data concerning the person's labour force status, the nature of the person's work or reason for not working, and the person's demographics. The survey sample consists of approximately 52,000 households. Coverage error is a measure of data quality that is important to any survey. One of the key measures of coverage error in the LFS is the percentage difference between the Census of Population estimates and the LFS population counts; this error is called slippage. A negative value indicates that the LFS has a problem of overcoverage, while a positive value indicates the LFS has an undercoverage problem. In general, slippage is positive, thus meaning that the LFS consistently misses people who should be enumerated.

The purpose of this study was to determine why slippage is increasing and what can be done to remedy it. The study was conducted in two stages. The first stage was a historical review of the projects that have studied and tried to control slippage in the LFS, as well as the operational changes that have been implemented over time. The second stage was an analysis of factors such as vacancy rates, non-response, demographics, urban and rural status and the impact of these factors on the slippage rate.