Surveys, Sources – Swiss Labour Force Survey (SLFS)Overview

Brief description	Conducted for the first time in 1991, the Swiss Labour Force Survey (SLFS) is sent out to households every year. The main purpose of the SLFS is to provide information on the structure of the labour force and employment behaviour patterns. Strict adherence to international definitions allows Swiss data to be compared with OECD and EU data. From 2010, the SLFS will be conducted on a continuous basis. The interviews from the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2009 enable the passage from the old to the new SLFS.
Institution responsible	Federal Statistical Office
Responsible service	Labour Force
Responsible person / information	Sylvie Regli Greub, 032 713 62 92, sylvie.regli@bfs.admin.ch - To order anonymised SLFS data for your research project: form and conditions for receipt of anonymised SLFS data (in French or German ). - Information on FSO surveys for science and research: Communication Portal for Accessing Social Statistics (COMPASS)
Conducted by	SFSO with the help of LINK Marketing Services Lucerne/Lausanne/Zurich/Lugano
Legal bases	Swiss Federal Ordinance of 30 June 1993 (RS 431.012.1)
Type of survey / statistic	Survey based on sampling of households. The SLFS is a telephone survey based on a sample of some 105,000 interviews (approx. 35,000 from 2002 to 2009 and approx. 16,000 until 2001) selected at random from the telephone book. Since 2003, an additional sampling of (15,000 until 2009 and 21,000 as of 2010) foreign households are selected from the Central Information Service on Migration (CISM). The persons who participate in the survey are interviewed 4 times over a period of one and a half year.
Statistical basis and survey units	Permanent resident population aged 15 and older
Features registered	Employment (current or past) Reasons for remaining economically inactive (retirement, education or training, etc.) Educational background and profession Place of work, work volume (in hours) Working conditions: work schedule, night shift, work over the weekends Economic branch Job income, household income Jobseeker (unemployed, underemployed) Professional and geographical mobility Education and continued education Unpaid work: household and family-related chores, community service and volunteer work, helping relatives, etc. Migrations Social security.
Degree of regionalisation	Switzerland and main regions
Reference period	from 1991 to 2009: 2nd quarter, every quarter from 2010
Period survey conducted	from 1991 to 2008: 2nd quarter, 2009: 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters, from 2010: From January to December on a continuous basis
Periodicity	from 1991 to 2009: annually, from 2010: quarterly
Available since	1991
Statistical quality of data	Coefficient of variation of 0.6% for all employed persons and of 4% for all unemployed (ILO-based) (2nd quarter 2010). An indication of the coefficients of variation is given in the quarterly press releases "Swiss Labour Force Survey and its derived statistics".
Revision	2001: questionnaire revised 2002: population sample increased Since 2003: additional population sample taken from Central Information Service on Migration From 2010: Continuous survey, revision of questionnaire
Last Update	14.05.2012

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