Since 1983 labour force surveys (LFS) are conducted annually in all European Union (EU) member states. The LFS serve as a basis for internationally compatible (in terms of definition and survey method) data on employment and unemployment for the European Commission. In Austria the LFS is conducted in full annually. The chosen month therefore is March because in this month the Mikrozensus-quarterly-survey which is most suitable in terms of scheduling for the LFS is performed. Central questions for the assessment of the number of employed and unemployed persons (and as a result for the calculation of the unemployment rate according to international standards) are in addition (since 1994) asked quarterly in the Mikrozensus standard survey. The survey conducted in March always relates to the week before the interview and includes the whole population, which means everybody who has their main residence in Austria. Data for persons not found have to be added via a substitution method so that results for the whole population can be provided. In Austria (as well as in several other states) the LFS is only conducted among the population in private households; people who live in institutions (retirement homes, boarding homes, and the like) are not included in the survey (the Mikrozensus special surveys are not conducted in institutional households due to organisational problems and problems with performing the surveys there). These are topics of the LFS: -> immigrants with and without the Austrian citizenship (4 questions) -> features of the “first job” (21 questions) -> statements on part-time jobs (6 questions) -> previous employments of unemployed persons (7 questions) -> job-seeking (13 questions) -> situation of unemployed persons (3 questions) -> school and professional education (9 questions) -> situation one year previous to the survey (7 questions) Furthermore, there are questions on the demographic background, providing information, evidence and the like. In the Mikrozensus, the annual special LFS survey contains 70 questions in addition to the questions of the standard survey which is concerned with standard LFS topics. The questions have remained more or less the same over the years. The only questions that have been changed slightly were those on education. Missing information is substituted with information from persons with similar socio-demographic variables (“imputation”), so that there are no “unknown” cases. Without the substitution program 11,2% of the information would be missing.

Probability: Stratified: Disproportional

Face-to-face interview