Albania

No Labor Force Survey or similar survey is carried out

INSTAT

Data cover all public sector (governmental organisations and public companies) as well private sector enterprises

annual

For government bodies and public sector enterprises the data cover activity, occupation, sex, education, occupation classification, budgetray or not, central or local government. For private sector basic breakdown is by sex, type of activity,and district/location.

No Labor Force Survey is carried out in Albania, data on employment and unemployment are collected through declarations of organisations

Employment Data are published in "Albania in Figures" and "Albanian Labor Market", Unemployment data are also published in "Quarterly Statistical Bulletin" and "Month Briefly"

Definition of employed is that used by ILO

Definition of unemployment is that defined by ILO and the main source of the data are administrative record of the Labor Office at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

INSTAT plans to carry out regular Labor Force Survey within next 2-3 years

Armenia

Sample Survey of Labor Force

National Statistical Service (NSS)

The whole country is covered, all industries and occupations included

1999

semi-annual

calendar week

employed, employment length, reasons, and means of seeking a job, economically non-active population. The information on employed and unemployed is received by age, sex, educational level, marital status, occupation, and types of economic activities, employment status. The separate information is received on status of current economic activity of the observed population.

In 1999 - 1,075 households per survey, in 2001 the sample size was 2322 households (1161 households for every six-month)

"Socio-Economic Situation in the Republic of Armenia" and "Men and Women in Armenia" and "Statistical Yearbook of Armenia"

All able-bodied citizens at territo-ry of the Republic and who in the examined period do not have work (profitable activity), seek for a job with the aid of employment services or independently and who are ready to begin work immediately or during the period defined by legislation.

The Labor Force Sample Survey is carried out in addition to the Living Standards Households Sample Survey.
Monthly rotation of households is implemented during the quarter.387 households are surveyed every month.

Labor Force Survey (LFS)

National Statistical Institute of the Republic of Bulgaria (NSI)

All household members age 15 and older

Sep-93

quarterly

calendar week

employment, unemployment, hours of work, duration of unemployment, reasons for unemployment,methods of job search,gender,age, place of residence, education,profession and family status

The LSF sample was designed at March 2001 and is based on the 2001 census results. The LSF sample size is 24,000 households. Data are recorded for all household members age 15 and older.

Rotation scheme is 2-2-2. 1/2 of households stays in two consecutive observations, then temporary are removed for the next two waves and enter again for the next two waves afterwards being definitely removed from the survey.
It is expected that about 1/3 of the survey will be rotated during the next round of the survey

"Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Bulgaria","Statistical Reference Book of the Republic of Bulgaria","Statistical Journal" and "Employment and Unemployment"

All people aged 15 and over who during the reference week performed some work for at least one hour for pay or profit; and all those who were not working but who had jobs or an enterprise from which they were temporarily absent due to illness, bad weather, vocational training or other similar reason

All persons of 15 years and over who did not work at all during the reference week, were actively looking for work during the four weeks previous to the interview and were available to start work within a defined short period of time.

Included as unemployed: people who were not actively looking for work but:
  - expected to start a new job or business within 30 days or
  - expected to return to their former job from which they were dismissed or on unpaid leave (over a month), providing they had a definite date of return to work.

Students, home-makers, pensioners and other persons who had no work during the reference week are considered as unemployed if they satisfy the above definition.

Response rate for households is 85%.

Czech Republic

Labor Force Sample Survey (LFSS)

The Czech Statistical Office (CZSO)

The whole country, all usual residents (questionnaire A) aged 15 and above (questionnaire B)

Dec-92

quarterly

calendar week

employment and unemployment, underemployment, number of employees of various organisations and firms, time worked, labor force mobility, occupation, qualificatiion, duration of unemployment,territorial structure, social and demographic statistics

24,000 dwellings (0.6 % of all dwellings permanently lived in) that represent approximately 61,000 respondents (including 52,000 respondents aged 15 or more)

20% of sampled dwellings are replaced every quarter (every dwelling remains in the survey for 5 consequtive quarters)

"Registered Employment","Labor Statistics:Time Series of Basic Indicators", "Statistical Yearbook of the Czech Republic" and "CZSO Bulletin"

The employed are all persons aged 15 and above who worked at least one hour during the reference week for a wage, salary or any other compensation, or who had a formal job attachment while not being at work. Whether their work activity was permanent, temporary, seasonal or occasional in nature or whether they were multiple job holders or not makes no difference. Persons on maternity leave are included, too. However, persons on additional child-care (parental) leave are not included.

The unemployed comprise all persons aged 15 and above who satisfied all of the following three conditions during the reference period:
  a)  were without work - i.e., were in neither empployment nor selfemployment;
  b)  were actively seeking work - the active form of seeking work includes registration with a labour office or private employment exchange, checking at work sites, farms, market or other assembly places, placing or answering newspaper advertisements, taking steps to establish own business, apllying for permits and licenses, or looking for a job in a different mannner;
  c)  were currently available for work - i.e. were available durign the reference period for paid employment or selfemployment immediately or within 14 days.

Underemployed - person who is employed either on part-time job, or who works less than 40 hours but wants to work more.

Estonia

Estonian Labor Force Survey (ELFS)

Statistical Office of Estonia

The target population of the survey are the workig-age residents of Estonia (aged 15-74)

1995, the data for earlier periods (89-94) were collected at 1995 survey

In 1997-1999 annual, from 2000 it is continuous with quarterly and annual publications

One week, but all weeks are covered since the ELFS is countinious

Employment and unemployemnt (duration of both and reasons for unemployemnt), time-related underemployment,hours of work; occupation, status, number of persons working at various organisations and firms; time worked; looking for another job and reasons for doing so; total duration of temporary job; social and demographic statistics; education; territorial structure; training or education for the reference period; second jobs.

Since 2000, a continuous panel survey based on a sample of 2,200 households per quarter has been conducted. The sample is drawn from the population register. Place of residence is used for stratification. The 15 counties of Estonia and the capital Tallinn are divided into 4 groups, according to their population. For every group, a different inclusion probability is calculated.

The sampe is drawn and updated quarterly - 25 percent of the sample is renewed in every quarter. Households are questioned during two consecutive quarters, after a two-quarter interval they are again questioned twice in the corresponding quarters of the following year. Half of the quarterly sample is identical with the previous quarter and half is identical with the same quarter of the previous year

Monthly "Estonian Statistics" and "Main Social and Economic Indicators of Estonia"; "Statistical Yearbook of Estonia" and "Labor Force"

ELFS defines employed as person of age 15-74 who during the reference week was working at least 1 hour for wage or salary, was an enterprenuer or self-employed, was absent from job, was working without payment for family business

ELFS defines unemplyed the person who satisies the following conditions simultaneously: actively looking for work, doesn't have work during reference week, and would like to start working withing 2 weeks if found work

Based on the absolute figures of the survey the number for whole population is estimated; non-response rate is about 13%; data are seasonaly not-adjusted;

Face to face interviews (paper / pencil) are conducted by interviewers of the Interviewers Set Department of the Statistical Office of Estonia. The interviewing (data collection) is normally done during the week immediately following the reference week but never later than during the five weeks following the reference week.

Hungary

Labor Force Survey (LFS)

The Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO)

The whole country, all persons living in private households during the reference week

1992

quarterly

calendar week

employment, unemployment, hours of work, duration of unemployment, reasons for not being employed, discouraged workers, occasional workers, industry, occupation, status in employment and level of education

Built up on the basis of the Population Census conducted in 1990. From 1998 surveys cover 32,000 households (prior to that date it was covering about 27 000 households - 47 000 persons). Since January 1998 the sample consists of three statistically equal sub-samples for each of the three months of the quarter. The sampling frame covers 751 settlements in the country, 12,775 secondary sample units, with total of about 626,000 addresses.

Any household in the sample is interviewed in 6 subsequent quarters and than leaves the sample forever. 1/6 of the sample is changed every period

"Monthly Bulletin of Statistics", "Labor Force Survey -Quarterly Bulletin"; "Labor Force Survey - Time Series XX"; "Statistical Yearbook" and "Statistical Pocketbook"

People aged 15-74 years who during the reference week:
  a)  erformed some work for at least one hour for pay in cash or in kind or for profit;
  b)  worked at least for one hour without pay in a family business or on a farm ('unpaid/contributing family workers');
  c)  did not work, although having employment, as they were temporarily absent from their work because of illness, holidays, bad weather, labout-management dispute, etc.
Excluded from the employed are persons who during the survey week were engaged in the following activities:
  a)  work without remuneration for another household or institution (voluntary work);
  b)  construction or renovation of own house or apartment;
  c)  housework;
  d)  work in private garden or piece of land for own consumption.

People who were not employed during the reference week, and
  a)  were actively looking for work during the four weeks prior to the reference week; and
  b)  were available for work within two weeks following the reference week; or
  c)  were supposed to begin a new job within 30 days.
Active job search is defined as including the following: contacting public or private employment offices to find a job, applying to employers directly, inserting or answering advertisements, asking friends or relatives, or other methods.

Underemployed: all people aged 15-74 who during the reference week:
  a)  worked less than 40 hours due to economic reasons (for example slack time in production, full-time work was not available,etc.);
  b)  usually worked for forty hours due to economic reasons;
  c)  were temporarily laid off.

1. Data for LFS are collected during personal interviewes during four weeks of field work.The referenceperiod is calendar week (Monday to Sunday) containing 12th day of the month. Interviews arte taking place during the next week.
2. Data are seasonally not adjusted.
3. Final data are coded to specific divisions A-Q, according to NACE Rev.1 at three-digit level; they are also coded by occupation into groups 0-9, according to Hungarian Statistical Office's four-digit classification; finally, the data are coded into categories according to education (11 categories) and status in employment.
4. Based on the sample of LFS survey the total levels in economy are estimated by inflating sample results through the suitably calculated sample weights.
5. Since 1994 Jackknife method is used in sampling error computations.
6. No adjustment is made for no-responce.

Latvia

Labor Force Survey

Central Statistical Bureau

The whole country; all persons aged 15 - 74 living in private households (including students living in hostels).

1995

from 2002 quarterly

employment data by industry, occupation, status, sex, age, nationality, education

Starting from January 2002 the sample size has been 10,296 households per year (Riga and six major towns - 5,304 households; other towns - 1,872 households; rural areas - 3,120 households).
Sample per quarter is 2574 households.

Each household is interviewed 3 times with 6 month interval. In the second half of the year two thirds of the sampled households are the same as in the fist one, but one third are new.

The monthly press release "Registered Unemployment"; "Unemployment Rates by Locality";"Monthly Bulletin of Latvian Statistics"; "Statistical Yerbook of Latvia";

A person is considered as employed if, during the reference week he or she did any work for cash, payment in goods or services, for at least one hour, whether payment was received in the week when the work was done or not; or was temporarily absent from work.

An unemployed person is a nonworking citizen of the Republic of Latvia or a foreigner (without any citizenship) who has received a license for permanent stay or who has a mark in the Population Register with the identity code of his/her passport, is of working age, is able to work, is not engaged in entrepreneurial activities, is looking for work and is registered with the State Employment Board according to his/her officially registered address and applies to the Board at least once a month

Lithuania

Registered Unemployment

The Lithuanian Labour Exchange

The whole country, all permanent residents aged 14-74 years including those temporarily absent

Apr-94

monthly

at the end of the month

unemployment, duration of unemployment, reasons for not being employed, discouraged workers, industry, occupation, level of education

Registration of unemployed persons is a public service under a national authority. It is undertaken at 46 local offices in all parts of the country, to cover all labor markets and localities.

"Labour Market and Employment", "Labour market and Employment", "Statistical Yearbook of Lithuania", "Labour Force, Employment and Unemployment"

An unemployed person is defined (according to the Law on Support for the Unemployed Persons, 1996) as a nonworking, able-bodied person of working age, not studying during the daytime at an educational institution, who has registered, according to place of residence, in the National Labor Exchange as seeking a job or as being available for vocational training.

Unemployment rate represent ratio of the unemployed to labour force

Lithuania

Labor Force Survey

Department of Statistics to the Government of the Republic of LithuaniaLithuanian Department of Statistics

since 2000 persons aged 15 and older have been interviewed

1994

from 2002 quarterly

The calendar week

employment,unemployment, hours of work, duration of unemployment, reasons for not being employed,discouraged workers, occasional workers, industry, occupation, status in employment and level of education

During the survey, approximately 12 thousand people are being randomly sampled from the population register.

During each survey about 25% of respondents are changed.

Employed - who have been working during the survey week for no less than 1 hour and for which they were paid money or in kind (food products or other stuff) or had profit (income). Actually, as such are considered all persons having the status of employment: employers, owners, employees, contributing family workers, irrespectively of whether they get remuneration or profit (income) or don’t get any, own-account workers.

Unemployed - who did not have work during the survey week, were ready to start working if work could be available during the coming fortnight and were intensively searching for job for a four-week period, i.e. applied to the public or private employment agencies, employers, friends, relatives, mass media, passed tests or had recruitment interviews , looked for premises, equipment for his/her own business, tried to buy a patent, get a license or financial recources. Those school children, students, housewives and other inactive persons who during the week of the survey were actively seeking work and were ready to start working during the coming fortnight have been assigned to the group of unemployed.

Poland

Current Labor Force Survey (CLFS)

Central Statistical office of the Republic of Poland (CSO)

The whole country, all persons of fifteen years old and above, who are members of the households selected for the survey

May-92

quarterly

The calendar week

employment by sectors of economic activity, status in employment, occupation and sectors of ownership, working hours, unemployment by industry, duration, methods of work search, percons not in the labor force

The sample is built up on the basis of the register of dwellings and territorial statistical units and census clasters created for such purpose. 5725 housing units per sample

A housing unit remains in the sample for two periods, leaves it for two periods, returnes for two periods and leaves the sample forever

Statistical yearbook of Poland, Quarterly Information on the Mabour Market Developments (in Polish and English), Quarterly Information on the Economic Activity of the Populations (in Polish), The Economic Activity of the population in Poland (in Polish), the economic activity of the unemployment in Poland (in Polish)

Those who during the reference week: a) performed some work for at least one hour for pay or profit as amployee, own-account worker or unpaid/contributing family worker; b) did not perform any work but had a formal job attachment as employee or own-account worker

Persons who had no work during the reference week, were available for work during the reference week or the week which followed, and were actively looking for work. Also included in the unemployed are persons who did not look for work because they had already found it and were waiting to start a new job.

Romania

Quarterly household labor force survey

National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies(NISES)

The whole country, all permanent residents aged fourteen years and over living in househols selected for the survey including those temporarily absent.

Mar-94

quarterly

The calendar week

employment by sex, industry, occupation and status in employment, hours of work, unemployment,duration of unemployment, reasont for not being employed, underemployment, forms of ownership and level of education

The sample size is 18,000 households throughout Romania, (a sub-sample of 6,000 are interviewed each month).

The same sample will be used for two quarters, rested for two quarters and reinstated for a further two quarters, before being finally retired.

"Statistical Bulletin"; "Labor Force Survey";"Statistics Yearbook"

All persons aged 15 years and over, who carried out an economic or social activity producing goods or services of at least one hour during the reference period in order to get income as salaries, payment in kind or other benefits./

Persons aged 15 and over who, during the reference period simultaneously meet the following conditions:
 -have no job and are no carrying out any activity in order to get income;
 -are looking for job, undertanking certain actions during the last 4 weeks (restering at employment agancies or private agencies, attempts for starting an activity on own acount, asking for a job among friends, relatives, mates, trade unions);
 -are available to start work within the next 15 days, if they would immediately find a job;

Russia

Population Sample Survey of Employment (PSSE)

The State Committee on Statistics of the Russian Federation (GOSKOMSTAT Russia)

The whole country, all permanent residents aged 15-72 years including those temporarily absent

Oct-92

annual

The calendar week

employment, unemployment, hours of work, duration of unemployment, reasons for not being employed, discouraged workers, occasional workers, industry, occupation, status in employment and level of education. Information on the informal sector is provided to the extent that survey respondents report on their activities. As regards underemployment, the anly data available are statistics on persons working part-time for economic and other relevant reasons

The planned sample is 170,000 persons aged 15-72 or 0.15% of the total polulation of these age groups.

Rotation size is about 20 per cent

"Russian statistical yearbook", "Russia in figures", "Social position and standard of living in Russia", "Regions of Russia"

The unemployed are persons within the age groups defined for measuring economic activity which during the period under consideration met at the same time the following criteria:
a) had no job (profitable occupation);
b) were seeking for job;
c) were ready to start work within some period.
Pupils, students, pensioners and disabled persons are considered the unemployed if they were seeking for job and were ready to start it.

All civilials who had no employment during the reference week, were available for work, except for temporary ilness, and had made specific steps to find employment. Note: temporarily not working paid/unpaid family workers are considered to be unemployed or not economically active depending on whether or not they were seeking work during the reference week. Included in the unemployed are full-time and part-time students seeking fullor part time employment, provided they are currently available for work (if they are seeking work for some future date, such as for the summer months, they are considered inactive).

Hours or work: these relate to the actual number of hours worked during the reference week (including overtime but excluding meal breakes, paid or unpaid days off and approved time away from work). For persons working in more than one job, the figures relate to the number worked in all jobs during the week.

Slovakia

Selective Registers of the Labor Force (VSPS)

The Statistical office of the Slovak Republic

The whole country, all permanent residents aged fifteen years and over

Dec-92

quarterly

The calendar week

employment by age, sex, industry, occupation and status in employment, wages, salaries and other types of remuneration, unemployment by age, sex, level of education, means of job search, duration, last employment ( industry, occupation). Retraining, and so on.

The sample is based on the basis of the population census conducted in March 1991. 10 000 dwelling units = 0.6 per cent of the total number of permanently occupied dwellings are included

20% of the sample dwellings are replaced every quarter (every selected dwelling remains in the survey for 5 consecutive quarters)

Results are published in "Statistical Figures and Graphs"

All persons aged 15 and over during the reference week did some work at least for one hour, as well as unpaid family workers and persons who were not working but who had jobs or businesses from which they were temporarily absent because of ilness, bad weather, holiday, metrnity leave, labor-management dispute, etc.

All persons of 15 years and over who did not work for pay or profit during the reference week, were actively looking for work during the four weeks previous to the interview and were available to start work withing the two weeks following the survey week

Slovakia

Labor Force Survey

Statistical Office of Slovak Republic

The whole country is covered (79 districts of Slovak Republic); all persons of 15 years and older are covered; all occupations and industrial sector included

1993

quarterly

The calendar week before the survey week

employment, hours of work, underemployment, sex, age, education, status, occupation, industry, duration of employment

10,250 dwellings (0.6% of all permanently ocupied dwellings); random sample from all districts; each household remains in the sample for 5 consecutive quarters; about 26,000 people in the sample; 20% of sample is replaced each quarter; data collected through personal interview; non-responce rate is about 6%; seasonal adjustment of LFS data are performed using TRAMO-SEATS method.

20% replacement quarterly

"Labour Force Sample Survey Results in the SR"

Employed persons are defined by LFS as persons of 15 years and older, who during the reference wekk have worked at least one hour for wage, salary or profit, had a job, but didn't work for some reason (maternity leave, illness, training, etc)

"Unemployed persons" are defined as persons, aged 15 or more, who did not work for pay or profit during the reference week, who actively sought a job during the previous four weeks, and who were able to start work in the next two weeks. The unemployed also include persons who did not actively seek a job because they had already found a job which will start within 1 month, or who were on long-term unpaid leave and expected to return to work within 3 months.

1. LFS data are coded into: 16 main groups by economic activity; 10 groups by occupation, 6 groups by status in employment, and 11 groups by education. For surveys in the period from 1993-1999 quarters were defined one month earlier than the standard calendar quarter. Before the 1997, conscripts were not included in surveys (they are from 1st quarter of 1997). Further change came in first quarter 1999 - sampling design have been adjusted to reflect new regional strcuture of Slovakia. Finall modification was made early 2000 when the survey quarter was refered to standard calendar quarter.

Slovenia

Labor Force Survey

The Statistical office of the Republic of Slovenia

The whole country, all percons living in private households whose usual place of residence is in the territory of Slovenia, including persons temporarily absent (less than 6 months)

May-93

Prior to 1997 LFS was annual survey conducted in May. Starting from 1997 it is a continious survey with data presented quarterly

The calendar week

employment, unemployment, duration of unemployment, hours of work, discouraged workers, industry, occupation and the level of education.

The LFS is a sample survey of approximately 7,000 households each quarter.
Stratified simple random sample is used. Stratum allocation is proportional to population distribution by region and type of settlement.

Each household is interviewed five times according to the rotation pattern 3-1-2. (first interviewed for three consequtive quarters,n and after one quarter break, interviewed for further two quarters)

"Rapid Report", "Monthly Statistical Review", "Results of Survey" and "Statistical Yearbook of Slovenia"

People aged 15 or over who did some paid work in the reference week; those who had a job that they were temporarily away from; those on government emplyoment programmes, and those doing unpaid family work, contract work, cash in hand work or work via student service.

People aged 15 or over who during the last week prior to the interview did not work (not in paid employment or self-employment and did not do any paid work); were actively seeking work (specific steps taken in past four weeks to seek paid employment or self-employment); were currently available for work (within two weeks). Persons who had found a job to start later are also included among unemployed persons.

Monthly "Rapid Report" is the quickest source of the most recent data from LFS. It publishes detailed quarterly based information on: population by activity and sex, labor force by schoool attainment and sex, different adjusted measures of population activity by groups and sex, working age, persons in employment by status, industry, sex, occupation, underemployed persons, average hours worked.