1. Dependent interviewing in the Swedish LFS
Krister Näsén
Statistics Sweden

2. Background
The LFS in Sweden is made up of 8 consecutive waves, one each quarter
7/8 of the sample was interviewed during the previous quarter
Sample size is each month
Use CATI as survey mode

3. Dependent interviewing
Is done in a very extensive way
This is not done primarily to cut interviewing costs
Independent interviews takes about 8 minutes 10 seconds
Dependent interviews take about 8 minutes
It does however cut costs for coding
Gives stability to certain variables
Basic set-up for all: confirm “status quo” with regards to over-all labour market situation
Easing respondent burden – perceived as shorter

4. Employed persons First wave
From registers, the last known place or places of work are added to the interview
This includes, name of company, address and postal code
So can be seen as somewhat dependent

5. Employed persons contd.

6. Employed persons contd.

7. Employed persons contd.

8. Employed persons contd.

9. Employed persons contd.
Questions done dependently
Place of work
Occupation
Usual number of hours worked
Full time-part time
And more…
This is done both for main and second job.

10. Employed persons contd.
The register information in the first wave is correct for about 50 percent of all employed
The registers ”lag” a bit
Using register information also ensure a high quality
Between waves about 90 percent still have the same job as in the previous wave
This means a lot less manual coding is needed
About 50 percent for first wave
About 10 percent between waves

11. Not employed persons
For those that are not employed the questionnaires are divided in to three
Unemployed
Inactive
Long term sick
Starting questions try to confirm “status quo” of labour market situation
The main feature for all three groups are control questions on whether they have worked since last wave
If they have not worked between waves, no questions are asked on previous work.

12. Unemployed, weeks in unemployment
Done dependently
If the respondent was unemployed at wave t, in wave t+1 dependent questions are asked on whether they are still looking for work
If they are still unemployed at wave t+1, 13 weeks are added to the number of weeks in unemployment
Gives a very stable line on time in unemployment

13. Employed looking for other jobs
Done independently
The same set of questions are used each time
Can be compared to the weeks in unemployment for unemployed
Same cognitive challenge to give an accurate answer as the unemployed
Very different results
Different situations which might effect the comparison

14. Weeks looking for other job

15. Weeks in unemployment

16. Recruitment statistics
For both employed and not employed persons we do recruitment statistics
For the employed how they found their new job
For not employed how they found their job
Enabled by dependent interviewing, easy to do follow up during the interview when someone has found or changed job