Workplace and Employee Survey (WES)

Summary of changes

Activity on this program started: 1994

Reference period of change - 2006

This last wave of Workplace and Employee Survey data only includes employer data since the employee portion of the survey was not conducted.

Employer 2003, 2004 and 2005 Revision:

This revision is the result of corrections made to the number of disputes, grievances or complaints for 300 records for the years 2003, 2004 and 2005.

Reference period of change - 2002

Since the release of the 2002 data a problem has been identified with the 2001 weights (more specifically in the way WES employment was calibrated to that of SEPH for reference year 2001.

Having established that a revision was necessary to correct the identified problem, we decided to take the opportunity to update all years to the new SEPH employment values associated with that survey's recent historical revision. In addition, we have decided to use this opportunity to push backwards certain methodological enhancements that have been introduced through the years. In general, the rebasing to SEPH affects every year whereas the methodological roll back affects years 1999 and 2000 the most. The result of these changes is a set of data that rests on the same methodological footing and that is consistent through time and with SEPH.

We have assessed the overall impact of these changes and have found that estimates are only slightly affected at higher levels of aggregation. On analytical work that has been redone internally, we have so far found that general conclusions remain the same although it is possible that conclusions from other work may yet change as a result of this revision. As one would expect, the impact of the revision is more pronounced at lower levels of aggregation such as regional levels, region by industries, and for various detailed cross-tabulations. In general, the higher the level of detail, (usually accompanied by a higher coefficient of variation), the higher the potential for large impact.

This applies to the four years of data (1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002).

Reference period of change - 2001

In 2001, questionnaire changes affected some variables, possibly compromising their comparability between years. A note appears in the WES Electronic Data Dictionary when a variable is potentially affected by such a change. Special attention should be given to the S_CHG* (question 21a - employer) and to the PRF33_* (questions 33a and 33b - employer) variables as the response categories order has been modified.

Reference period of change - 2000

Data sources - In 1999, workplace data were collected in person. As of 2000, computer assisted telephone interviews are conducted.

Estimation - Since the release of the 2000 data, the scale of the bootstrap weights has changed from 20 to 50. This applies to the three years of data (1999, 2000, and 2001).

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