Experimental estimates of family weekly income, update

Statistics Canada has undertaken a broad range of initiatives designed to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on Canadians. This update extends earlier, experimental research into monthly family income trends of Canadians over the pandemic period. The approach integrates weekly earnings available from the Canadian Labour Force Survey (LFS) together with information specific to government transfers including special COVID-19 benefits collected through administrative data sources and imputation. This update incorporates additional sources of data, and accounts for new pandemic relief programs introduced after September 2020. Population coverage is improved, and experimental estimates are updated and extended through December 2020. The paper describes the data sources used, estimation strategies employed, limitations, and potential future developments.