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Computer-assisted telephone interviewing

SLID uses computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) for data collection. With CATI, interviews are conducted over the phone and simultaneously entered in a computer that guides the interviewer through the questionnaire. 

Because of its complexity as a longitudinal survey, SLID benefits greatly from CATI's potential for improving data quality. For example, there are many dates to collect in the course of a labour interview - dates worked, dates of jobless spells, absences from work and so on. With CATI, interviewers can remind respondents of information they provided in a previous interview. This helps respondents remember start and end dates of jobs and reduces the tendency to incorrectly associate these dates with the beginning or end of calendar years.

CATI also makes it possible to reconcile the separate labour and income interviews: the computerized questionnaire checks for logical inconsistencies between information reported in January and information reported in May. In the event of an inconsistency, the interviewer can immediately probe the respondent for clarification. 

Computer-assisted interviewing helps keep track of members returning to the household and individuals returning to employers, rather than treating these members of employers as completely new.

Proxy response is accepted in SLID. This procedure allows one household member to answer questions on behalf of any or all other members of the household, provided he or she is willing to do so and is knowledgeable.