1. The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is carried out on an ongoing basis using a quarterly gross sample of 3,200 private households. The objective is to have a continuous assessment of labour market trends given that the reference weeks are evenly spread throughout the 13 weeks of the quarter. One-fourth of the sample is made up of households who have been selected to participate in the LFS for the first time. Three-fourths of the quarterly sample is made up of households who were selected to participate in the survey in previous instances, either one quarter before, or one year before, or one year and a quarter before (2-(2)-2). Unless otherwise indicated, figures provided in this release refer to persons aged 15 and over and living in private households during the reference period. All criteria used for this survey match international methodologies used by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

2. The LFS is designed to satisfy the concepts and definitions as outlined by Eurostat, which is the EU Statistical Agency. This allows the comparability of results with other EU Member States and countries following ILO definitions of employment and unemployment. Occupations are classified according to the ISCO – 08 classification (International Standard Classification of Occupations), whereas the economic activity is classified according to NACE Rev. 2 (Nomenclature statistique des Activités économiques dans la Communauté Européenne). Educational attainment is classified according to ISCED 2011 (International Standard Classification of Education).

3. As from January 2021, Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 establishing a common framework for European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at individual level collected from samples and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/257 of 16th December 2019 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council by specifying the number and the title of the variables for the labour force domain, came into force.

4. This legislation has mainly led to changes in the LFS questionnaire and mode of data collection. An analysis of the impact of this change on LFS estimates was conducted in order to assess the divergence of LFS results from pre-IESS (Integrated European Social Statistics) to post-IESS levels. Technical notes on these divergences are found here.

5.  The data is classified by economic activity according to the NACE (Nomenclature Statistique des Activités Économiques dans la Communauté Européenne) classification of economic activities in the European Union. The data is presented in accordance with NACE Revision 2 Update 1 (NACE Rev. 2.1), reflecting the latest updates to the classification system. To support continuity and facilitate comparison with previous releases, data tables compiled according to NACE Rev. 2 are also provided. Dual coding of economic activity classifications, covering both NACE Rev. 2 and NACE Rev. 2.1 has been implemented in the Labour Force Survey from 2025 onwards.

The main changes in the classification at NACE section level introduced by NACE Rev. 2.1, compared with NACE Rev. 2, include:

a. Section J of NACE Rev. 2 has been split into two sections: Section J, ‘Publishing, broadcasting, and content production and distribution activities’ and Section K ‘Telecommunication, computer programming, consulting, computing infrastructure and other information service activities’. As a result, all the subsequent sections in NACE Rev. 2.1 shifted up one letter.

b. Group 41.1 ‘Development of building projects’ has been removed from section F. Its sole class, 41.10, has been reclassified under class 68.12 within section M (formerly section L).

c. Division 45 ‘Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles’ has been discontinued from section G. The wholesale and retail activities of motor vehicles and motorcycles have been allocated to division 46 and 47 respectively, while the activities of maintenance and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles were moved to section T (formerly section S).

d. The classification of real estate rental activities has been refined: rentals of own or leased real estate for periods of less than one year are now classified under Division 55 (Section I), whereas rentals for one year or longer remain under Division 68 (Section M – formerly section L).

More information on the reclassification can be found in the relevant Press Information Notice and in the News article by Eurostat.

6.  Definitions:

● Activity rate: labour force (15-64 years) as a percentage of the population of working age (15-64 years).

● Actual hours worked: refers to the number of hours actually spent at the place of work during the reference week for the main job. A person may work extra hours (e.g. overtime, variable hours) or work less hours than usual (e.g. vacation leave, education, sick leave or slack work) due to various reasons. Owing to increased flexibility at workplaces coupled with technology, the place of work may also include one’s home. In this regard, actual hours worked also includes the hours of work carried out by persons who telework.

● Average monthly basic salary: refers to the average monthly basic salary received by employees before any social contributions and tax deductions. This amount excludes payments for overtime, allowances and bonuses. Data for this variable is provisional and subject to revisions.

● Educational Attainment:

– secondary level of education or less: comprising persons with no schooling, primary education, schools for children with special needs and persons who attained a secondary level education and have less than 2 ordinary level qualifications or equivalent. In the context of the ISCED classification, ‘low’ includes ISCED 0 to 2.

– post-secondary level of education: comprising persons with a secondary level education and having 2 ordinary level qualifications or equivalent or more, and persons with a post-secondary level attainment who have obtained at least 1 intermediate or advanced level qualification or equivalent. In the context of the ISCED classification, ‘medium’ refers to ISCED 3 and 4.

– tertiary level of education: comprising persons with a tertiary level education and with qualifications ranging from diploma to doctorate level. In the context of the ISCED classification, ‘high’ refers to ISCED 5 to 8.

● Employees: are defined as persons who work for a public or private employer and who receive compensation in the form of wages, salaries, fees, gratuities, payment by results or payment in kind.

● Employed persons: comprises of persons aged 15 to 89 who, during the reference week, were in one of the following categories:

– worked for at least 1 hour for pay or profit, including contributing family workers and paid casual work

– persons with a job or business who were temporarily not at work during the reference week but had an attachment to their job, including:

(a) persons not at work due to holidays, working time arrangements, sick leave, maternity or paternity leave;
(b) persons in job-related training or formal education;
(c) persons on parental leave, either receiving and/or being entitled to job-related income or benefits, or whose parental leave is expected to be 3 months or less;
(d) seasonal workers during the off-season, where they continue to regularly perform tasks and duties for the job or business, excluding fulfilment of legal or administrative obligations;
(e) persons temporarily not at work for other reasons where the expected duration of the absence is 3 months or less.

● Employment rate: persons in employment (15-64 years) as a percentage of the population of working age (15-64 years).

● Inactive persons: all persons who are not classified as employed or unemployed are defined as inactive.

● Labour force: all persons in employment and unemployed persons.

● Normal hours worked: refers to the number of usual hours worked per week in the main job over a long reference period, excluding weeks when an absence from work occurs (e.g. holidays, vacation leave or sick leave).

● Part-time employment: a part-time worker is an employed person whose normal hours are less than those of comparable full-time workers. Persons employed on a full-time with reduced hours basis are included in this category.

● Reference week: the week to which the collected data relate.

● Unemployed persons: all persons above 15 years of age who, during the reference week, satisfied the following criteria:

– without work

– actively seeking work during the previous 4 weeks: i.e. had either carried out activities in the four-week period ending with the reference week to seek paid employment or self-employment or found a job to start within a period of at most 3 months from the end of the reference week. Examples of active job search include contacting Jobsplus, studying job advertisements or placing or updating CVs online.

– currently available for work: i.e. available for paid employment or self-employment before the end of the 2 weeks following the reference week.

● Unemployment rate: unemployed persons (15-74 years) as a percentage of the labour force (15-74 years).

7. Sampling variability

Data included in this release is based on sample data and is therefore subject to sampling error. Sampling error is measured by a quantity known as the margin of error, which in turn, expresses the variability between the true population parameters and their corresponding sample estimates. In the table below, the margin of error is used to construct a set of 95 per cent confidence intervals for specific variables, which gives an indication of where the true population parameters lie.