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Description:

The Guaranteed Income Supplement is one of the pillars of Canada's safety net for seniors. Available to those with little or no income other than Old Age Security, it plays an integral part in reducing low income among those 65 and over. However, a misunderstanding of the rules and requirements has meant that some eligible seniors are missing out.

Description:

The housing transition patterns of seniors had been the focus of some attention in 2004 against a backdrop of concerns about the dwindling demand for rental properties. This article takes a closer look at seniors who downsize, those who upsize and others who move for lifestyle reasons. It identifies the characteristics of senior movers, the life events associated with their move, and the various types of housing transitions they made.

Description:

This report builds on previous research examining the role of family income in postsecondary education. The paper attempts to address three broad questions using data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID). First, has the postsecondary education participation pattern changed in the recent past either for college and university participation, or for youth of various backgrounds? Second, how are the socio-economic factors related to postsecondary participation? Does the impact of socio-economic factors differ for college and university participation? Thirdly, for those who did pursue postsecondary education, which factors are more important in the choice of institution - university versus college?

Description:

The Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) is a longitudinal survey initiated in 1993. The survey was designed to measure changes in the economic well-being of Canadians as well as the factors affecting these changes.

Sample surveys are subject to errors. As with all surveys conducted at Statistics Canada, considerable time and effort is taken to control such errors at every stage of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics. Nonetheless errors do occur. It is the policy at Statistics Canada to furnish users with measures of data quality so that the user is able to interpret the data properly. This report summarizes a set of quality measures that has been produced in an attempt to describe the overall quality of SLID data. Among the measures included in the report are sample composition and attrition rates, sampling errors, coverage errors in the form of slippage rates, response rates, tax permission and tax linkage rates, and imputation rates.

Description:

The Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) is a longitudinal survey initiated in 1993. The survey was designed to measure changes in the economic well-being of Canadians as well as the factors affecting these changes.

Sample surveys are subject to errors. As with all surveys conducted at Statistics Canada, considerable time and effort is taken to control such errors at every stage of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics. Nonetheless errors do occur. It is the policy at Statistics Canada to furnish users with measures of data quality so that the user is able to interpret the data properly. This report summarizes a set of quality measures that has been produced in an attempt to describe the overall quality of SLID data. Among the measures included in the report are sample composition and attrition rates, sampling errors, coverage errors in the form of slippage rates, response rates, tax permission and tax linkage rates, and imputation rates.

Description:

This study used data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) to examine three groups of the unemployed population: the seldom unemployed, the always unemployed and the chronically unemployed. For the purposes of this study, the seldom unemployed group is defined as the 10% of the unemployed with the least time spent unemployed. The always unemployed, those who couldn't find a job when they searched for one, accounted for another 5%. The chronically unemployed group has been defined as the remaining top 10% of the unemployed with the most time spent in unemployment - between 48% and 99% of their time in the labour force.

Description:

The release of the 2003 data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) was accompanied by a historical revision which accomplished three things. First, the survey weights were updated to take into account new population projections based on the 2001 Census of Population, instead of the 1996 Census. Second, a new procedure in the weight adjustments was introduced to take into account an external source of information on the overall distribution of income in the population, namely the T4 file of employer remittances to Canada Revenue Agency. Third, the low income estimates were revised due to new low income cut-offs (LICOs). This paper describes the second of these improvements' the new weighting procedure to reflect the distribution of income in the population with greater accuracy. Part 1 explains in non-technical terms how this new procedure came about and how it works. Part 2 provides some examples of the impacts on the results for previous years.

Description:

For some time, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has used data on housing characteristics and housing-related expenditures from the Census of Population. Although the Census data source serves CMHC's purposes to a large extent, the federal government agency turned to the annual household surveys of Statistics Canada to provide information on a more frequent basis. This would allow them to have a better picture of annual trends, and perhaps have a greater choice of other characteristics with which to cross housing data on Canadian households. In 2001, CMHC began to sponsor additional content in both the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) and the Survey of Household Spending (SHS), starting with reference year 2002.

Description:

This article investigates factors influencing the chances of find a job for people who were unemployed for more than six months in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Results for the short-term jobless are included for comparison.

Description:

The Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) conducts two annual interviews: the Labour interview in January and the Income interview in May. The data are collected using computer-assisted interviewing. Thus there are no paper questionnaires required for data collection. The questions, responses and interview flow for Labour and Income are documented in other SLID research papers. This document presents the information for the 2004 Entry Exit portion of the Labour and the Income interviews (for the 2003 reference year).

The Entry Exit Component consists of five separate modules. The Entry module is the first set of data collected. It is information collected to update household composition and place of residence. For each person identified in Entry, the Demographics module collects (or updates) the person's name, date of birth, sex and marital status. Then the Relationships module identifies (or updates) the relationship between each respondent and every other household member. Relationship data is not collected in the May Income interview. The Exit module includes questions on who to contact for the next interview and the names, phone numbers and addresses of two contacts to be used only if future tracing of respondents is required. An overview of the Tracing module is also included in this document.

Description: Total income by census family type and living arrangement (number, average, median and percentage).

Description: Average and median total income by census family type.

Description: Median total income, economic family types.

Description: Income tax by economic family type (average, share and implicit income tax rate).

Description: Distribution of after-tax income, all family units.

Description: Distribution of after-tax income of individuals.

Description: Average after-tax income, by economic family type.

Description: Upper income limits and income shares of after-tax income quintiles for all family units.

Description: Median after-tax income, economic family types.

Description: Upper income limits and income shares of adjusted after-tax income quintiles for all economic family units.

Description:

The gender gap in hourly wages narrowed between the late 1980s and the late 2000s. This article analyses the narrowing wage gap according to the changing characteristics of men and women in paid work, the changes in pay received for those characteristics, and the extent to which who works in each period affects the results.

Description:

During the recent employment downturn, self-employment was one source of employment growth. This article uses data from the Labour Force Survey to examine the sources and characteristics of the recent increase in self-employment, the dynamics of entry into and exit out of self-employment, and to assess the extent to which those who lost paid jobs early in the recession might account for the subsequent surge in self-employment.

Description:

Finding a job related to one's studies is a key factor for many job seekers. Closely matching individual and job skills can be beneficial for both employees and employers. This study uses the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics to estimate the wage premium for a close job-to-education match among men and women who graduated from universities and community colleges while controlling for field of study and demographic factors.

Description:

Layoffs displace a large number of workers each year, and they are known to have lasting effects on individuals' standard of living. This study conducts a comparative analysis of the risk of layoff between the 1990s and 2000s, seeking to identify the factors associated with this risk. It then examines the duration of jobless spells as well as various characteristics of the lost jobs and subsequent jobs, such as the wage, union coverage and participation in a retirement plan.

Description:

In order to provide a holographic or complete picture of low income, Statistics Canada uses three complementary low income lines: the Low Income Cut-offs (LICOs), the Low Income Measures (LIMs) and the Market Basket Measure (MBM). While the first two lines were developed by Statistics Canada, the MBM is based on concepts developed by Human Resources and Skill Development Canada. Though these measures differ from one another, they give a generally consistent picture of low income status over time. None of these measures is the best. Each contributes its own perspective and its own strengths to the study of low income, so that cumulatively, the three provide a better understanding of the phenomenon of low income as a whole. These measures are not measures of poverty, but strictly measures of low income.

Description:

Statistics Canada introduced its Low Income Measure (LIM) in 1991 as a complement to its Low Income Cut-Offs (LICOs). The Low Income Measure (LIM) is a dollar threshold that delineates low-income in relation to the median income and different versions of this measure are in wide use internationally. Over the intervening 25 years there have been a number of useful methodological and conceptual developments in the area of low income measurement. To make the Canadian LIM methodology consistent with international norms and practices, a revision of the Statistics Canada LIM methodology appears desirable.

This paper describes three modifications to the LIM that Statistics Canada plans to introduce in 2010: replacing the economic family by household; replacing the current LIM equivalence scale by the square root of household size; and taking household size into consideration in determining the low-income thresholds. The paper explains the rationale behind each modification and demonstrates the impacts the revisions will have on low-income statistics in comparison with those under the existing LIM. Overall the revisions do not have any significant effect on broad historic trends in low-income statistics in Canada. However, compared to the existing LIM the revised LIM produces lower estimates of low-income incidence for certain groups of individuals such as unattached non-elderly individuals.

Description:

This study assesses the existing LICO, LIM, and MBM lines, together with a fixed LIM, by using several distribution sensitive indexes. We found that the low income lines tracked each other well in the long-run. But, in the short-run, they often behaved differently. The same was observed when examining different indexes under the same line. In the long-run, the low income rate, gap, and severity indexes all moved in the same direction. However in the short-run, they sometimes varied in opposite directions, or in the same direction with different magnitudes, suggesting that a single line or index can be misleading in some circumstances.

Description:

International comparisons show that the percentage of both college- and university-educated workers who earn less than half of the median employment income is higher than in Canada than in most, if not all, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Data from Statistics Canada's Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) show that 18% of university-educated adults and 23% of college-educated adults aged 25 to 64 in Canada earned less than half the national median employment income in 2006.

This study uses descriptive statistics and logistic regression techniques in order to shed light on the type of highly educated worker who is likely to fall into lower employment earnings, taking into account a range of characteristics, including age, sex, field of study, occupation and industry. While all of the workers in the study population had non-zero employment earnings, many of them reported an activity other than working as their main activity for the year, a key factor in explaining their low-earnings situation. Other factors associated with having a college or university education while also having low employment earnings include being self-employed, working in certain occupations or industries and being female.

Description:

This report compares the aggregate income estimates as published by four different statistical programs. The System of National Accounts provides a portrait of economic activity at the macro economic level. The three other programs considered generate data from a micro-economic perspective: two are survey based (Census of Population and Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics) and the third derives all its results from administrative data (Annual Estimates for Census Families and Individuals). A review of the conceptual differences across the sources is followed by a discussion of coverage issues and processing discrepancies that might influence estimates. Aggregate income estimates with adjustments where possible to account for known conceptual differences are compared. Even allowing for statistical variability, some reconciliation issues remain. These are sometimes are explained by the use of different methodologies or data gathering instruments but they sometimes also remain unexplained.

Description:

The student borrowing rate among postsecondary graduates increased between 1995 and 2005, with borrowers differing little from non-borrowers in terms of employment rates and total personal income. However, borrowers were less likely to have savings or investments, or own their own homes. Total debt for borrower and non-borrower graduates age 20 to 29 was similar, while borrowers had lower assets and net worth than non-borrowers.

Description:

In May 2004 the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) collected data on income from both its third and fourth panels. Panel 3 was in its fifth year of collection and panel 4 was in its second year.

Respondents had the option of answering income questions in an interview, or of giving permission to Statistics Canada to allow SLID to use the information on their income tax return.

The purpose of this document is to present the questions, possible responses and question flows for the 2004 Income questionnaire (for the 2003 reference year).

Description:

This paper describes the changes made to the structure of geography information on SLID from reference year 1999 onwards. It goes into reasons for changing to the 2001 Census-based geography, shows how the overlap between the 1991 and 2001 Census-based concepts are handled, provides detail on how the geographic concepts are implemented, discusses a new imputation procedure and finishes with an illustration of the impact of these changes on selected tables.

Description:

This document presents information about the entry-exit portion of the annual labour and the income interviews of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID).

Description:

This document outlines the structure of the January 2003 labour interview of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID), including question wording, possible responses and flows of questions.

Description:

This paper describes the collection method and content of the 2003 income interview of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID). Respondents also had the option of giving Statistics Canada permission to use the information on their income tax return.

Description:

This document presents the questions, possible responses and question flows for the 2003 preliminary questionnaire of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID).

Description:

This paper presents the information for the Entry Exit portion of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) Income interview.

Description:

This document presents the information for the Entry Exit portion of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) Labour interview.

Description:

This document presents the questions, question flows and possible responses for the 2002 Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) preliminary questionnaire.

Description:

This document outlines the structure of the January 2002 Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) labour interview. It includes the wording of questions, the flow of questions and possible responses.