Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Annual Population Survey (APS) identifiable data
A survey of households living at private addresses in the UK as well as people residing in NHS accommodation. Provides good quality point-in-time and change estimates for various labour market outputs and related topics.
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a survey of employment circumstances of the UK population. It is one of the largest continuous household surveys in the UK. Its purpose is to provide information on the UK labour market which can then be used to develop, manage, evaluate and report on labour market policies.
The sample is made up of a main sample, used to make up the quarterly LFS datasets, and a boost sample, used to enhance the Annual Population Survey (APS) datasets.
The LFS sample covers around 40,000 households (90,000 individuals) every quarter. The APS sample covers around 100,000 households (200,000 individuals). Respondents in the main sample are interviewed in five consecutive waves in three-month intervals. Respondents to the boost sample are interviewed in four consecutive waves in 12-month intervals.
The data includes over 1,000 variables (questionnaire and derived variables) covering topics such as:
- general household characteristics
- job industries and occupation
- employment patterns and hours worked
- earnings and benefits
- health and well-being
- education and training
The datasets available from this survey are:
- LFS person-level data (quarterly)
- LFS household-level data (quarterly)
- LFS longitudinal data (two quarters and five quarters); however, only LFS longitudinal (two quarters) is currently available in the Integrated Data Service (IDS)
- APS person-level data (rolling annual datasets on a quarterly basis)
- APS household-level data (annually)
- APS longitudinal (two years)
- APS pooled (three years)
Read more about the methodology, questionnaire and derived variables, datasets and other information in the LFS user guidance on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) website (opens in a new tab)