Methodological changes in the Polish Labour Force Survey: ensuring international comparability and data quality
Methodological changes in the Polish Labour Force Survey: ensuring international comparability and data quality

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to explore the methodological changes in the Polish Labour Force Survey (PL-LFS, Pol. Badanie Aktywności Ekonomicznej Ludności) between 2020 and 2021, focusing on how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the comparability of data. The disruption caused by the pandemic led to a sudden shift from face-to-face interviewing (CAPI) to telephone-assisted interviewing (CATI) from the second quarter of 2020 onwards. Based on a detailed analysis of documents describing how the survey was conducted and on unit-level data from the survey, the paper demonstrates how this shift affected key aspects of the survey implementation, including the rotation pattern, response rates, attrition dynamics, interview mode and sample composition. In particular, telephone-recruited samples differed systematically from traditionally recruited samples, with higher shares of older, urban and more educated respondents, as well as with increased use of proxy interviews. Despite harmonisation efforts and the recalculation of the key labour market indicators since 2010, the methodological changes jointly with pandemic-induced disturbances have disrupted the continuity and interpretability of the PL-LFS data series, limiting the usefulness of comparisons before and after 2021.

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