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A framework for the dynamic analysis of unemployment is presented, and applied to Canadian and U.S. data. The focus of the analysis is upon the distinctionbetween being unemployed and becoming unemployed, that is, between the stock and the flow of unemployment. The share of a particular group in the stock ofunemployed will differ from its share in the flow into unemployment to the extent that the average duration of unemployment for the group differs from the economywide average. An analysis of Canadian and U.S. data leads to a series of stylized facts that permit a deeper understanding of unemployment in the two countries, andof the differences between them. Significant differences in the average duration of unemployment imply that stock shares are not good indicators of flow shares,changes in the stock share of some groups are due to changes in the flow share, while for others they are due to changes in the length of unemployment spells.Explanations of the Canada - U.S. unemployment rate gap should try to accommodate at least three facts uncovered by the analysis: (1) that employer initiatedpermanent separations are the primary means of entry into unemployment in Canada, while labour force entry plays a more important role in the US; (2)unemployment spells are significantly longer in Canada than in the U.S. because of longer spells for most groups regardless of reason for unemployment, not becauseof a compositional difference in the make up of the unemployed; and (3) that longer spell duration and a higher incidence of unemployment contribute about equallyto the trend increase in the Canada - U.S. unemployment differential during the 1980s.

Police-reported violent crime in Canada increased steadily from the early 1970s through to the early 1990s. Homicides, in particular, tend to be widely covered in the media, especially those of a brutal nature or those targeting the more vulnerable members of society. The 1993 General Social Survey indicated a growing concern among Canadians about threats of attack or violence. Yet the homicide rate has gradually been declining since the mid 1970s.

The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) measured the variation in basic literacy skills of adults in seven industrialized nations. This note outlines the aims and methodology of the landmark study and provides a snapshot of results for people in Canada, the United States and Germany.

Last November, Statistics Canada hosted its 12th annual International Symposium on Methodology Issues. This report outlines selected speakers' observations about the radical changes taking place in the creation and delivery of statistical information.

This study is one of a series that examines how technology adoption affects the skills of workers. Previous papers in the series have approached this issue in differentways with data from a variety of sources. Using data on the strategies and activities of small and medium-sized firms in both manufacturing and services industries,Baldwin and Johnson (1995), Baldwin, Johnson and Pedersen (1996) examine the connection between the different strategies that are pursued by growing firms.Firms that stress technological competencies are found to also place a greater emphasis on skill enhancement and training activities. Using survey data on the type oftechnology used in manufacturing plants and plant managers' perceptions of the skill requirements and training costs associated with the adoption of newtechnologies, Baldwin, Gray and Johnson (1995) find that technology use leads to greater skill requirements, more training, and higher training costs.This paper uses survey data on the incidence of advanced technology adoption and matched panel data on plant characteristics such as wages, capital intensity, andsize to examine the connection between technology use and the wage rates received by workers. Since higher wages are associated with higher skill levels,establishing a connection between technology use and wages reinforces the earlier findings.

This paper describes the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) following rules, which govern who is traced and who is interviewed. It also outlines the conceptual basis for these procedures.

This paper evaluates the effects of dependent interviewing on the 1994 Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) labour data using some early results.

In 1994, Statistics Canada began data collection for the National Population Health Survey (NPHS), a household survey designed to mesure the health status of Canadians and to expand knowledge of health determinants. The survey is longitudinal, with data being collected on selected panel members every second year. This article focuses on the NPHS sample design ant its rationale. Topics include sample allocation, representativeness, and selection; modifications in Quebec and the territories; and integration of the NPHS with the National Longitudinal Survey of Children. The final section considers some methodological issues to be addresses in future waves of the survey.

Changes in Statistics Canada's annual population estimates, introduced in 1993, have an impact on a wide range of social, economic and demographic indicators. Any indicator that relies on population estimates will be affected by the new figures. This article describes the adjustment and examines its impact on health and vital statistics rates. With rare exceptions, all rates decrease as the denominators are adjusted upward. For example, accident rates, suicide rates, and age-specific fertility rates based on the adjustment population are lower than those previously calculated. The extent of the adjustment, however, depends on the geographic and demographic characteristics of the population at risk. Analysts whose work concentrates on special subgroups for whom the adjustment is particularly great (such as young adult men) may wish to pay closer attention to the new population figures. Although the new rates are lower than before, underlying trends and patterns over time or across subcategories are quite similar. The revised series incorporates estimates of net census undercoverage, and for the first time, includes non-permanent residents. In 1991, net census undercoverage and non-permanent residents together amounted to about one million persons, or 3.6% of the revised Canadian population of 28,120,100.

The statistical observation that small firms have created the majority of new jobs during the 1980s has had a tremendous influence on public policy. Governmentshave looked to the small firm sector for employment growth, and have promoted policies to augment this expansion. However, recent research in the US suggeststhat net job creation in the small firm sector may have been overestimated, relative to that in large firms. This paper addresses various measurement issues raised inthe recent research, and uses a very unique Canadian longitudinal data set that encompasses all companies in the Canadian economy to reassess the issue of jobcreation by firm size. We conclude that over the 1978-92 period, for both the entire Canadian economy and the manufacturing sector, the growth rate of (net)employment decreases monotonically as the size of firm increases, no matter which method of sizing firms is used. The small firm sector has accounted for adisproportionate share of both gross job gains and job losses, and in that aggregate, accounted for a disproportionate share of the employment increase over theperiod. Measurement does matter, however, as the magnitude of the difference in the growth rates of small and large firms is very sensitive to the measurementapproaches used. The paper also produces results for various industrial sectors, asks whether the more rapid growth in industries with a high proportion of smallfirms is responsible for the findings at the all-economy level, and examines employment growth in existing small and large firms (ie excluding births). It is found thatemployment growth in the population of existing small and large firms is very similar.

This package was designed to help users access and manipulate the public use microdata file (PUMF – provincial) for the 2014 General Social Survey (GSS) on Canadians’ Safety (Victimization). It contains the PUMF data and describes the objectives, methodology and estimation procedures for this survey as well as guidelines for releasing estimates.

Statistics Canada collected data on the topic of Canadians’ safety (Victimization) for the sixth time in 2014. Data were previously collected in 1988 (Cycle 3), 1993 (Cycle 8), 1999 (Cycle 13), 2004 (Cycle 18) and 2009 (Cycle 23). The 2014 provincial GSS collected data from persons aged 15 years and over living in private households in Canada, excluding residents of the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut and full time residents of institutions.

Between 2009 and 2014, the core content of the survey was revised in a number of ways, based on experience gained from earlier iterations. Some questions were revised to improve their clarity for respondents, and others were added or dropped following consultations with stakeholders from the justice sector, government and academic communities.

This package was designed to enable users to access and manipulate the microdata file for Cycle 23 (2009) of the General Social Survey (GSS). It contains information on the objectives, methodology and estimation procedures, as well as guidelines for releasing estimates based on the survey.

Cycle 23 collected data from persons 15 years and over living in private households in Canada, excluding residents of the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut; and full-time residents of institutions.

The purpose of this survey is to better understand how Canadians perceive crime and the justice system and their experiences of victimization. The survey is designed to produce estimates of the extent to which persons are the victims of eight types of offences (assault, sexual assault, robbery, theft of personal property, breaking and entering, motor vehicle theft, theft of household property and vandalism); to examine the risk factors associated with victimization; to examine the rates of reporting to the police; and to evaluate the fear of crime and public perceptions of crime and the criminal justice system.

Cycle 23 is the fifth cycle of the GSS dedicated to collecting data on victimization. Previous cycles had been conducted in 1988, 1993, 1999 and 2004. Cycle 23 includes most of the content from previous cycles as well as new content, added to reflect the society's emerging issues of crime prevention and Internet victimization.

This package was designed to enable users to access and manipulate the microdata file for the 21st cycle (2007) of the General Social Survey (GSS). It contains information on the objectives, methodology and estimation procedures, as well as guidelines for releasing estimates based on the survey. Cycle 21 of the GSS collected data from persons aged 45 years and over living in private households in the 10 provinces of Canada. The survey covered a wide range of topics such as well-being, family composition, retirement decisions and plans, care giving and care receiving experiences, social networks and housing.

Cycle 15 of the General Social Survey (GSS) is the third cycle to collect detailed information on family life in Canada. The previous GSS cycles that collected family data were Cycles 5 and 10. Topics include demographic characteristics such as age, sex, and marital status; family origin of parents; brothers and sisters; marriages of respondent; common-law unions of respondent; fertility and family intentions; values and attitudes; education history; work history; main activity and other characteristics.

The target population for Cycle 15 of the GSS is all persons 15 years of age and older in Canada, excluding residents of the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, and full-time residents of institutions.

This publication presents data on young offender admissions to custody and community services, with breakdowns by custody (remand, secure, open) and probation, and key case characteristics, such as age, sex, Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal status and most serious offence. In addition, it includes data pertaining to releases from remand, secure custody and open custody, by sex and time served. These breakdowns are presented at the national and provincial/territorial levels.

Data presented in this publication are drawn from two primary sources: 1) The Youth Custody and Community Services (YCCS) Survey. The objective of this survey is to collect and analyse information on the application of dispositions under the Young Offenders Act from provincial and territorial agencies responsible for youth corrections and programs. 2) The Youth Key Indicator Report (YKIR). This survey measures the average counts of youth in custody (remand, secure and open) and on probation. The YKIR describes average daily counts (caseload), which measure the volume of offenders held in custody or on probation on an average day at month-end. This information also provides an examination of youth incarceration and probation rates in Canada.

This Statistics Canada publication is a collection of five annotated maps and graphs that describe the geographic distribution of manure in Canada by river basin. The amount of manure produced is estimated along with some of the major substances found in manure: (i) nitrogen, (ii) phosphorus, (iii) total coliform bacteria and (iv) fecal coliform bacteria.

The maps and figures presented in this report indicate that there are geographic areas in Canada characterized by higher levels of total livestock manure and related production of nitrogen, phosphorus and bacteria. Areas that repeatedly showed the highest levels were found in central and southern Alberta, southern Manitoba, southern Ontario, southeastern Quebec, parts of Prince Edward Island, the west Fraser River area in southern British Columbia and an area near Wolfville and Kentville, Nova Scotia.

This publication presents data on revenue and expense items from wholesalers and retailers by trade group and by province. There are 16 retail trade groups and 11 wholesale trade groups. Profiles of the retail trade groups are provided for each individual province/territory and are comprised of: number of locations, total operating revenues, cost of goods sold, gross margin and employee earnings and benefits. At the national level for each retail trade group are the following performance indicators: sales to inventory, cost of goods sold to inventory, gross margin and profit margin. Also provided at the national level are total operating revenues, number of locations for independent and for chain stores, the number of retail businesses by trade and total operating revenue by SIC (4 digit when possible).

The 11 wholesale trade groups, plus grain and petroleum products, are profiled for each individual province/territory giving: number of locations, total operating revenues, cost of goods sold, gross margin and employee earnings and benefits. Performance indicators by trade group at the national level including sales to inventory, cost of goods sold to inventory, gross margin and profit margin are provided. Total operating revenue at the national level by Standard Industrial Classification and by class of customer and trade group are also provided.

This publication presents information on the income, expenditure and assets of all trusteed pension funds in Canada in both the public and private sectors. Data are presented at the Canada level. The publication contains an analysis of the funds based on the size of the fund, the number of members and the type of benefit. It is a continuation of a series of reports produced since 1957. As a single pool of investment capital in Canada, these funds are surpassed in size only by the aggregate reserves held by the chartered banks.

With this working paper, Statistics Canada is releasing 1991 Census data tabulated by a new geographic classification called "census metropolitan area and census agglomeration influenced zones", or MIZ. This classification applies to census subdivisions (municipalities) that lie outside census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations. This part of Canada covers 96% of the country's total land mass and contains 22% of its population, yet up to now we have been limited in our means of differentiating this vast area. The MIZ classification shows the influence of census metropolitan areas (CMA) and census agglomerations (CA) on surrounding census subdivisions as measured by commuting flows based on 1991 Census place of work data. This version of the MIZ classification also incorporates a preliminary version of a north concept that flags census subdivisions according to their location in the north or south of Canada.

The series of tables presented here show detailed demographic, social and economic characteristics for Canada as a whole, for the six major regions of Canada, and for individual provinces and territories. Within each table, the data are subdivided into five categories: census metropolitan area or census agglomeration, strong MIZ, moderate MIZ, weak MIZ and no MIZ. Within each of these categories, the data are further subdivided into north and south.

Readers are invited to review and use the data tables to assess whether this combined MIZ and north/south classification of non-CMA/CA areas provides sufficient detail to support data analysis and research. The intent of this MIZ classification is to reveal previously hidden data detail and thereby help users address issues related to this vast geographic area.

This is the first of three related Geography working papers (catalogue no. 92F0138MPE). The second working paper (no. 2000-2, 92F0138MPE00002) provides background information about the methodology used to delineate the MIZ classification. The third working paper (no. 2000-3, 92F0138MPE00003) describes the methodology used to define a continuous line across Canada that separates the north from the south to further differentiate the MIZ classification.

Consulting Engineering Services Price Index (CEPI) is an annual index that measures changes in the prices for services provided by consulting engineers. These services encompass advisory and design work as well as construction or project management. They are provided for many types of projects (fields of specialization), and to both Canadian and foreign clients. Price indexes are published for 10 fields of specialization as well as for national, regional, and foreign markets.

Composite imputation is often used in business surveys. The term "composite" means that more than a single imputation method is used to impute missing values for a variable of interest. The literature on variance estimation in the presence of composite imputation is rather limited. To deal with this problem, we consider an extension of the methodology developed by Särndal (1992). Our extension is quite general and easy to implement provided that linear imputation methods are used to fill in the missing values. This class of imputation methods contains linear regression imputation, donor imputation and auxiliary value imputation, sometimes called cold-deck or substitution imputation. It thus covers the most common methods used by national statistical agencies for the imputation of missing values. Our methodology has been implemented in the System for the Estimation of Variance due to Nonresponse and Imputation (SEVANI) developed at Statistics Canada. Its performance is evaluated in a simulation study.

This paper describes recent developments in adaptive sampling strategies and introduces new variations on those strategies. Recent developments described included targeted random walk designs and adaptive web sampling. These designs are particularly suited for sampling in networks; for example, for finding a sample of people from a hidden human population by following social links from sample individuals to find additional members of the hidden population to add to the sample. Each of these designs can also be translated into spatial settings to produce flexible new spatial adaptive strategies for sampling unevenly distributed populations. Variations on these sampling strategies include versions in which the network or spatial links have unequal weights and are followed with unequal probabilities.

This paper presents a review and assessment of the use of balanced sampling by means of the cube method. After defining the notion of balanced sample and balanced sampling, a short history of the concept of balancing is presented. The theory of the cube method is briefly presented. Emphasis is placed on the practical problems posed by balanced sampling: the interest of the method with respect to other sampling methods and calibration, the field of application, the accuracy of balancing, the choice of auxiliary variables and ways to implement the method.

In this paper, a discussion of the three papers from the US Census Bureau special compilation is presented.

This issue presents statistics, derived from the Importer Register Database, on importing establishments for the years 2002 to 2009. This Importer Register Database provides importer statistics such as the number of importers and the value of their imports by industry, importer size, origin and province of residence.

The establishment is the statistical unit of measure. Consequently, any reference made here to "importers" represents "statistical establishments that imported." Inclusion in the database requires that an establishment has imported merchandise in at least one year from 2002 to 2009. If an establishment does not import in a given year, that establishment is not included in the Register for that year.

This report is divided into four sections: "Highlights" consist of an overview of results of the 2009 Importer Register Database; "Findings" contains more detailed analyses of the Importer Register Database; "Methodology, Data concepts and definitions" outlines the estimation methods and limitations as well as the fundamental principles of the Importer Register Database; and "Data tables" contain tabular data for the years from 2002 to 2009.

This issue presents exporter statistics from 1996 to 2009 including the number of exporters, the value of their domestic exports by industry, exporter size, destination and province of residence as well as employment statistics of exporting establishments for the year 2009. The data in this issue are at the establishment level and are derived from the Exporter Register Database.

Dual frame telephone surveys are becoming common in the U.S. because of the incompleteness of the landline frame as people transition to cell phones. This article examines nonsampling errors in dual frame telephone surveys. Even though nonsampling errors are ignored in much of the dual frame literature, we find that under some conditions substantial biases may arise in dual frame telephone surveys due to these errors. We specifically explore biases due to nonresponse and measurement error in these telephone surveys. To reduce the bias resulting from these errors, we propose dual frame sampling and weighting methods. The compositing factor for combining the estimates from the two frames is shown to play an important role in reducing nonresponse bias.

Data linkage is the act of bringing together records that are believed to belong to the same unit (e.g., person or business) from two or more files. It is a very common way to enhance dimensions such as time and breadth or depth of detail. Data linkage is often not an error-free process and can lead to linking a pair of records that do not belong to the same unit. There is an explosion of record linkage applications, yet there has been little work on assuring the quality of analyses using such linked files. Naively treating such a linked file as if it were linked without errors will, in general, lead to biased estimates. This paper develops a maximum likelihood estimator for contingency tables and logistic regression with incorrectly linked records. The estimation technique is simple and is implemented using the well-known EM algorithm. A well known method of linking records in the present context is probabilistic data linking. The paper demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed estimators in an empirical study which uses probabilistic data linkage.

In this paper we study small area estimation using area level models. We first consider the Fay-Herriot model (Fay and Herriot 1979) for the case of smoothed known sampling variances and the You-Chapman model (You and Chapman 2006) for the case of sampling variance modeling. Then we consider hierarchical Bayes (HB) spatial models that extend the Fay-Herriot and You-Chapman models by capturing both the geographically unstructured heterogeneity and spatial correlation effects among areas for local smoothing. The proposed models are implemented using the Gibbs sampling method for fully Bayesian inference. We apply the proposed models to the analysis of health survey data and make comparisons among the HB model-based estimates and direct design-based estimates. Our results have shown that the HB model-based estimates perform much better than the direct estimates. In addition, the proposed area level spatial models achieve smaller CVs than the Fay-Herriot and You-Chapman models, particularly for the areas with three or more neighbouring areas. Bayesian model comparison and model fit analysis are also presented.

Small area estimation based on linear mixed models can be inefficient when the underlying relationships are non-linear. In this paper we introduce SAE techniques for variables that can be modelled linearly following a non-linear transformation. In particular, we extend the model-based direct estimator of Chandra and Chambers (2005, 2009) to data that are consistent with a linear mixed model in the logarithmic scale, using model calibration to define appropriate weights for use in this estimator. Our results show that the resulting transformation-based estimator is both efficient and robust with respect to the distribution of the random effects in the model. An application to business survey data demonstrates the satisfactory performance of the method.

Although income and expenditure data provide an indication of current consumption and ability to purchase goods and services, they provide little information on the long-term ability of families to sustain themselves. The results of this survey will provide information on the net worth (wealth) of Canadian families, that is, the value of their assets less their debts.

This paper examines the objectives of the survey, how the survey has changed since 1984, the types of questions being asked and information that will be provided, as well as other survey background. An accompanying table outlines the content of the questionnaire. The intent of this paper is to describe the work done to date and the next steps for this important subject.

This document summarizes the comments and feedback received on an earlier document: Towards a new Canadian asset and debt survey - A content discussion paper. The new asset and debt survey (now called the Survey of Financial Security) is to update the wealth information on Canadian families and unattached individuals. Since the last data collection was conducted in 1984, it was essential to include a consultative process in the development of the survey in order to obtain feedback on issues of concern and to define the conceptual framework for the survey.

Comments on the content discussion paper are summarized by major theme and sections indicate how the suggestions are being incorporated into the survey or why they could not be incorporated. This paper also mentions the main objectives of the survey and provides an overview of the survey content, revised according to the feedback from the discussion paper.

The 1993 System of National Accounts (SNA) was implemented in Canada in November 1997 and all national accounts series - annual, quarterly and monthly, both at current and constant prices - were revised back to 1961. There were changes in classification of sectors and transactions, concepts and methodology. As well, we removed the statistical breaks in earlier series that arose due to our revision policy. In the spring of every year, we revise, if necessary, our national accounts series for the latest four years. Statistical breaks for earlier periods are removed only at the time of historical revisions, such as the one done in November 1997. This was the fifth and the most comprehensive historical revision of the Canadian SNA series since 1961, the earlier ones were done in the late 1960s, the late 1970s, in 1985 and in 1990. As our historical revisions have been done almost every decade, and more frequently since the 1980s, statistical breaks in the Canadian system have remained only for a short period.

This paper describes the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) following rules, which govern who is traced and who is interviewed. It also outlines the conceptual basis for these procedures.