Place of work status of employed person

Status: This standard was approved as a departmental standard on April 14, 2026.

Definition

Place of work status refers to whether a person worked at home, worked outside Canada, had no fixed workplace address, and/or worked at a specific address outside of their home.

Employed person refers to those who, during the reference period, had a labour force status of 'employed'. That is, those who, during the reference period:

(a) Did any work at all at a job or business, that is, paid work in the context of an employer-employee relationship, or self-employment. This also includes persons who did unpaid family work, which is defined as unpaid work contributing directly to the operation of a farm, business or professional practice owned and operated by a related member of the same household; or

(b) Had a job but were not at work due to factors such as their own illness or disability, personal or family responsibilities, vacation or a labour dispute. This category excludes persons not at work because they were on layoff or between casual jobs, and those who did not then have a job (even if they had a job to start at a future date).

Usage

Place of work status applies to a specific job.

For the Census of Population, the specific job is the job the person held in the reference week. Persons with two or more jobs were to report the information for the job at which they worked the most hours. This concept reflects the combination of locations selected by the respondent as their workplace(s) in a usual workweek.

Conformity to relevant internationally recognized standards

The definition and classification of 'place of work status' are compatible with those of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's "Conference of European Statisticians Recommendations for the 2020 Censuses of Population and Housing", 2015.

Classifications

• Classification of place of work status April 14, 2026 to current

Additional information

See:

• Classification of Labour Force Status

Relation to previous version

• Place of work status of employed person April 14, 2026 to current

  The definition of the concept "place of work status" and a category name and definition in the classification have been modified. The definition now allows for multiple work location arrangements and specifies a fixed workplace location outside the home rather than a usual place of work.

• Place of work status of employed person April 20, 2015 to April 13, 2026

  March 16, 2021 - The universe has changed so that only those who had a job during Census week are included.
  
  April 20, 2015 - This standard replaces the recommended standard 'place of work of employed person'. The concept has been renamed 'place of work status'.

• Place of work of employed person June 21, 2010 to April 19, 2015

  This standard was replaced by the 'Place of work status of employed person' as of April 20, 2015.