Survey of Displaced Workers

Detailed information for the January 1, 1981 to December 31, 1985 reference period

Status:

Inactive

Frequency:

One Time

Record number:

3845

The January 1986 supplement to the Labour Force Survey (LFS) is being conducted by Statistics Canada on behalf of Employment and Immigration Canada (EIC). The primary objective of this survey was to estimate the number of Canadians who were displaced from a job or business during the five-year period from January 1, 1981 to December 31, 1985. The data collected provides an insight into both the reason for job displacement, and the consequences of the displacement. For the purposes of this survey, a displaced worker is anyone who, having held a steady job for a substantial period of time (at least one or two years), lost their job because of a plant closing, an employer going out of business, or a layoff from which the worker was not recalled.

Data release - "Survey of Displaced Workers (1986)", Catalogue no.: 75M0004XDB, was released on June 30, 1994. It can be accessed through the link "Publications" included in the side bar menu above.

Description

The information obtained from the Survey of Displaced Workers will provide:

1) The number of workers affected by job displacements and the reasons for job cutbacks or elimination of shifts;

2) The pattern of stability of employment within certain industries and occupations;

3) Measurement of the impact of job displacement such as period of time a person is without work between jobs and whether it was necessary for a person to relocate in order to find work;

4) Information on insurance benefits and training following displacements.

The primary objective of this survey was to estimate the number of Canadians who were displaced from a job or business during the five-year period from January 1, 1981 to December 31, 1985. The data collected provides an insight into both the reason for job displacement, and the consequences of the displacement. For the purposes of this survey, a displaced worker is anyone who, having held a steady job for a substantial period of time (at least one or two years), lost their job because of a plant closing, an employer going out of business, or a layoff from which the worker was not recalled.

Reference period: January 1, 1981

Collection period: The collection period is the Labour Force Survey (LFS) interview week, usually the third week of the month. For this survey, it was January 20 to January 25, 1986.

Subjects

  • Employment and unemployment
  • Labour
  • Labour mobility, turnover and work absences

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The target population for the Survey of Displaced Workers was all persons 20 years of age and older living in Canada with the exception of Labour Force Survey exclusions.

Because the survey was conducted as a supplement to the Canadian Labour Force Survey, by design, residents of Indian Reserves, full-time members of the Canadian Armed Forces, inmates of institutions and foreign diplomats were excluded from the target population. The exclusions represent less than 2% of the total population.

This survey targets three specific groups of the population. These three groups are:

1) Workers who were displaced and remained unemployed or are not in the labour force.

2) Workers who were displaced, found other work, were displaced again and remained unemployed or are not in the labour force.

3) Workers who were displaced, found other work and are currently working.

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a cross-sectional design.

The Survey of Displaced Workers was conducted on a sub-sample of the January 1986 Labour Force Survey. The LFS uses a multi-stage area sample which is based upon information from the 1981 Census of Canada. Five of the six LFS rotation groups were used, rotation groups 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Each person in the households in these rotation groups who were 20 years of age or older were asked the displaced workers questions.

Data sources

Data collection for this reference period: January 20, 1986 to January 25, 1986

Responding to this survey is voluntary.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents.

The collection period for the survey was January 20 through January 25, 1986. The Survey of Displaced Workers was conducted at the time of the interview for the monthly Labour Force Survey. The interviews were conducted as either telephone or personal visit interviews depending upon the mode used to collect the monthly LFS information.

View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .

Error detection

Data from the survey questionnaires were entered directly into mini-computers in Statistics Canada's Regional Offices and transmitted to Ottawa. The data capture program allowed for a valid range of codes for each question and automatically followed the flow of the questionnaire. It was possible for operators to enter either invalid data or information that violated the questionnaire flow but only through the use of a special "override function" after they had been alerted that the entry might not be valid. No editing to check for consistency between questions was done at this stage.

Persons who did not respond to the questionnaire (i.e., refused, were absent during the survey period, etc.) or did not provide a pre-determined minimum amount of information were accounted for in the weighting.

Industry and occupation was coded for the job from which the respondent was displaced. These industry and occupation codes were assigned in the same manner as the coding for the Labour Force Survey.

All responding survey records were subjected to an exhaustive computer edit to identify and correct invalid or inconsistent information on the questionnaires. Records with missing or incorrect information were assigned non-response codes or corrected from other information from the respondents' questionnaire. Editing was "bottom-up", meaning that a branching pattern was employed to ensure the branching was correct.

Imputation

This methodology does not apply.

Estimation

The principals of the calculations for the weights for the Survey of Displaced Workers are identical to those of the Labour Force Survey. Three adjustments are made to the final LFS weights in order to derive a final weight for the individual records on the Survey of Displaced Workers microdata file. The adjustments made to the LFS weights account for:
1) A factor to adjust for the use of a five-sixth sample;
2) A factor to adjust for the non-response to the Survey of Displaced Workers supplement;
3) A factor to adjust for provincial, age, sex projections.

The first weight adjustment mentioned above is to account for sub-sampling of rotation groups.

The second is to account for the non-response rate to the Survey of Displaced Workers supplement. Some households that responded to the LFS refused to respond to the supplementary questions on displacement.

The third adjustment is to balance weights to age and sex population estimates at the provincial level.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects that could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

In order to prevent any data disclosure, confidentiality analysis is done using the Statistics Canada Generalized Disclosure Control System (G-Confid). G-Confid is used for primary suppression (direct disclosure) as well as for secondary suppression (residual disclosure). Direct disclosure occurs when the value in a tabulation cell is composed of or dominated by few enterprises while residual disclosure occurs when confidential information can be derived indirectly by piecing together information from different sources or data series.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

This methodology does not apply to this survey.

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