[4] In 1940, the Works Progress Administration started the Monthly Report of Unemployment, a national sample survey of households.
[6]: 76–77 After some additional changes in sampling, questionnaires, and survey methods, the main framework of the LFS was almost finalized by 1967 and has offered the long-term time-series data since then.
[7] It also offers data from extra surveys that have been published as "Detailed Tabulation" containing supplemental findings in addition to the LFS main results.
It is the only French source for the data about economic activity, employment, and unemployment as defined by the guidelines of International Labour Office and Eurostat.
It recently experienced major methodological changes in 2002 (new definition of unemployment), in 2005 (new questionnaire and computer-assisted telephone survey method), and in 2021 (to adapt the new European regulations 2019).
[13] The Office for National Statistics (ONS) conducted the United Kingdom's first Labour Force Survey in 1973 and repeated it every two years until 1983.
[15] Prior to 1998, EU member states were required to conduct an LFS in one quarter per year, but as a result of Council Regulation (EEC) No.
[17] Responsibility for sample selection, questionnaire design and fieldwork lies with member states' national statistical offices, who then forward the results to Eurostat, employing a common coding scheme.
In the UK, for example, the LFS has been used as a data source for research projects on topics such as female employment, the economic returns to education, migration and ethnic minority groups.