Introduction

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The Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) conducts an annual labour and income interview in January using computer-assisted interviewing.

For the SLID 2007 collection (reference year 2006), panel 4 was in its fifth year of collection and panel 5 was in its second year. Both panels consisted of approximately 37,000 households and 82,200 people.

In Appendix 2, figure 1 presents an overview of the flow of all of the components of the interview, while figure 2 shows the flow of the entry exit component.

The ENTRY module collects or updates information on the place of residence, housing conditions and expenses, as well as household members. For each household member listed at the last interview, the interviewer asks whether he/she is still a household member. For those who are not, information is collected on when the person moved out, the reason for leaving, and the new address and telephone number. If the entire household has moved, information on telephone number and address is updated. Finally, the interviewer asks if there are any new household members. If so, the interviewer first checks whether the new person is a "ghost" (those persons who used to belong to the household but who moved out and may have returned at this contact). A list of former household members (ghosts) is provided from the previous SLID interview for each household. If the person is not on this list, their name is added to the household roster. These new persons are joiners. The date when the person joined the household is asked as well as the person's previous province of residence.

The DEMOGRAPHICS module collects or updates the date of birth, sex and marital status of each household member.

The RELATIONSHIPS module identifies or updates the relationship between each household member and every other household member.

Most surveys which contain household and family variables construct family relationships in relation to a household reference person or "head". For example, a family composed of a husband, wife and two children might use either the husband or the wife as the reference person. We would end up with relationships of head, spouse, and children. By collecting family relationships based on a reference person we lose detailed information about family relationships.

SLID collects an expanded set of demographic data by asking, each year, the relationship of every household member to every other household member, rather than by the traditional method of relating everyone to one reference person. The objective of this relationship approach is to collect data that reflect the changes that have taken place in family relationships over a six year period. As well, in a longitudinal survey, this approach avoids the need to re-ask relationships if the reference person leaves the household.

The EXIT module confirms the household contact name for the next interview and asks whether the household is planning a future move. If so the new address is recorded. The names, phone numbers and addresses of two friends or relatives, who may be contacted if future tracing of respondents is required, is also collected.

Cases will be sent to the TRACING component as a result of the answers given to certain questions in the entry module.

This research paper presents the content of the 2007 ENTRY EXIT component¹ for the labour and income interview (for reference year 2006) including question wording, possible responses, and flows of questions.