Catalogue description Office for National Statistics and predecessors: Labour Force Survey: Survey Documents: Registered Papers and Digital Files

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Details of RG 53
Reference: RG 53
Title: Office for National Statistics and predecessors: Labour Force Survey: Survey Documents: Registered Papers and Digital Files
Description:

This hybrid series contains both digital records and registered paper files, including complete sets of blank labour force survey documents.

Date: 1971-2011
Arrangement:

Paper records are arranged chronologically by survey and within each survey in alpha-numeric order.

References for born-digital records are automatically generated and display a 'Z' after a forward slash, which distinguish them from traditional references allocated to paper and digitised records.

Separated material:

An anonymised version of the surveys in machine readable format is held at the ESCR Data Archive, University of Essex.
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Former reference in its original department: CEN file series
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Office for National Statistics, 1996-

Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, 1970-1996

Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, Labour Force Survey, 1970-1990
Physical description: 158 paper files and digital records
Access conditions: Open unless otherwise stated
Immediate source of acquisition:

From 2022 Office for National Statistics

From 1993 Office of Population Censuses and Surveys
Selection and destruction information: The questionnaires from LFS(C) are destroyed after 15 months and those from LFS(A) are destroyed after 5 years.
Accruals: Series is accruing.
Administrative / biographical background:

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a study of the employment circumstances of the UK population. It is the largest household study in the UK and provides the official measures of employment and unemployment.

The first Labour Force Survey (LFS) was carried out in 1973 at the request of the Statistical Office of the European Economic Community (EEC) and organised throughout the UK by Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) on behalf of the Department of Employment. In England and Wales the survey was carried out by OPCS, in Scotland by the General Register Office (Scotland) and in Northern Ireland by the Department of Economic Development; OPCS took over responsibility for the fieldwork in Scotland in 1988. The survey was designed to provide comparable estimates of employment and unemployment throughout the community, thus enabling the development of consistent social policies.

The information collected from the members of the households at the selected addresses consisted of relationships, ages, marital status, nationality and country of birth, employment, industry and occupation, hours worked, reasons for leaving jobs, how the unemployed are seeking jobs, training and training courses.

From 1973-1981 Social Survey Division (SSD) and Census Field Branch liaised on the survey, with SSD assuming responsibility for the field pilot survey, sample design, training, public relations and interviewing techniques and Census Field in control of recruitment, instructions and the broad training and work loads of field staff. In 1981 SSD took full responsibility for the survey. The survey was carried out every other year from 1973-1983, but from 1984 it divided into 2 operations:- LFS(C) a continuous survey undertaken throughout the year and LFS(A) a survey which takes place in the UK in March, April and May and is to meet EEC requirements. Results from both surveys are combined for March-May for EEC and British Government use.

In 1996, Office of Population Censuses and Surveys merged with the UK Central Statistical Office to form the Office for National Statistics.

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