Parliamentary legislation has made it mandatory for people to participate in this survey because of the vital information it provides about Canada s labour market. It would be costly and impractical to survey each and every household in Canada. Instead, Statistics Canada employs a statistical method known as sampling. Sampling is an established way to determine the characteristics of an entire population by using the answers of a much smaller, randomly chosen sample. In order to ensure that the sample is an accurate reflection of the population as a whole, the survey results from all sampled households must be collected.
Information submitted by individuals and households is kept strictly confidential.
Under the Statistics Act , all Statistics Canada employees must take an oath of secrecy. Moreover, only employees who need to work directly with the questionnaires have access to them. The LFS provides a wide range of information on employment, unemployment, and labour participation. The information is available by demographic characteristics such as age, sex, level of education, and family characteristics. Information is also produced by industry, occupation, job tenure, class of worker, weekly hours, wages, and union coverage.