Abstract
The European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) measurement of the employment status is based on a synthesized economic construct computed according to the ILO conventional definitions of the employed, unemployed and inactive. Since the late 2000s, a variable measuring people’s perceptions of their employment status has been included in the EU-LFS questionnaire as it is used in all large-scale sample surveys, i.e. one of the occupational background variables. These measurements are not comparable and their results will differ since a composite economic construct would normally deviate from people’s perceptions. The purpose of this paper is, by obtaining a social “profile” of agreement and disagreement between Southern Europeans’ declared self-perceptions of their employment status and the ILO conventional definitions, to investigate whether or not conflicting and coinciding perceptions differ overtime within-nations and cross-nationally. The analysis is based on the 2008–2014 annual datasets for Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The results are reported for the age group 15–74 so as to allow for comparability with the ILO conventional definition of unemployment.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Brandolini, A., Cipollone, P., & Viviano, E. (2004). Does the ILO definition capture all unemployment? (Temi di discussione del Servizio Studi 529). Roma: Banca d’Italia.
Braun, M., & Mohler, P. P. (2003). Background variables. In J. A. Harkness, F. J. R. Van de Vijver, & P. P. Mohler (Eds.), Cross-cultural survey methods. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.
de la Fuente, A. (2011). New measures of labour market attachment: 3 new Eurostat indicators to supplement the unemployment rate (Statistics in Focus 57), Eurostat, European Commission.
Eurostat. (2008). Labour Force Survey revised explanatory notes (to be applied from 2008Q1 onwards), European Commission.
Eurostat. (2009). Task Force on the quality of the Labour Force Survey: Final report. European Commission.
Eurostat. (2016). EU Labour Force Survey database user guide. European Commission.
Gauckler, B., & Körner, T. (2011). Measuring the employment status in the Labour Force Survey and the German census 2011: Insights from recent research at Destatis. Methoden –Daten–Analysen, 5(2), 181–205.
Hussmanns, R., Mehran, F., & Verma, V. (1990). Surveys of economically active population, employment, unemployment and underemployment: An ILO manual on concepts and methods. Geneva: International Labour Office.
Jones, S. R. G., & Riddell, W. C. (1999). The measurement of unemployment: An empirical approach. Econometrica, 67(1), 147–162.
Kish, L. (1994). Multipopulation survey designs: Five types with seven shared aspects. International Statistical Review, 62(2), 167–186.
Oppenheim, A. N. (1992). Questionnaire design, interviewing and attitude measurement (new edition). London: Continuum.
Schwarz, N. (1987). Cognitive issues of Labour Force Surveys in a multinational context: Issues and findings. Paper prepared for the OECD Working Party on Employment and Unemployment Statistics, Paris, April, 14–16.
Stephan, F. F., & McCarthy, P. J. (1958). Sampling opinions: An analysis of survey procedure. Westport: Greenwood Press.
Yfanti, A., Michalopoulou, C., & Zahariou, S. (2017). The decision of how to measure unemployment is a political and not a statistical question: Evidence from the European Labour Force Survey: 2008–2014. Manuscript in preparation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Yfanti, A., Michalopoulou, C., Mimis, A., Zachariou, S. (2018). Investigating Southern Europeans’ Perceptions of Their Employment Status. In: Skiadas, C., Skiadas, C. (eds) Demography and Health Issues. The Springer Series on Demographic Methods and Population Analysis, vol 46. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76002-5_21
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76002-5_21
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76001-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76002-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)