Study title

SSB has conducted official quarterly labor force surveys (LFS) since Q1 1972. The survey aims to provide labor authorities and other interested parties with knowledge of the occupational structure of the population and its development over time. The surveys will provide the basis and statistical material for occupational forecasting and labor market research. In the LFS, one respondent is interviewed for two consecutive quarters, then there is a break for two quarters and then the respondent is interviewed again for two consecutive quarters. The sample was approximately 10 to 11,000 respondents each quarter until 1988. The Labour Force Survey 1976 is the fifth full year with the LFS. Originally it was intended that the LFS should be an analytical supplement to the monthly employment statistics that were based on the insurance fund membership files. The insurance fund-based statistics, however, fell away when health insurance was included in the National Insurance Scheme from 1st of January 1971, and the LFS has gradually evolved to become the main source of knowledge about the state of the labor market. In 1975, SSB changed the selection plan for surveys, see respectively Art.37: On the use of random samples at the office for interview surveys, Statistics Norway (Steinar Tamsfoss) and SES 33: Principles and Methods of Statistics Norway samples (Ib Thomsen). Meanwhile, the estimation method for inflating national figures changed so that there are reasonable numbers for regions from the 1975. The reorganization in 1975 led to interviews changing in how they were performed in the groups before and after. This meant, among other things a break from the Panel system used in the LFS. In the Labour Force Survey 1976, a slightly modified questionnaire was adpoted and we came back on the original six-quarter rotation schedule. The new questionnaire meant that people in the group family workers and temporarily absent from work were identified in a better way. This...