The EAPS is a continuous statistical operation by sampling carried out by the INE to measure the activity, employment and unemployment of the resident population. It is the primary source for quarterly labour market monitoring in Spain.

It is aimed at people who live in main family dwellings (habitual residence) and therefore does not include those who live in collective housing (such as residences, barracks or convents).

The EAPS is a sample survey conducted through structured, direct interviews in households.  The sample is of about 46,000 households per quarter or, in other words, about 110,000 people.

Each selected household remains in the sample for six consecutive quarters, and is interviewed once per quarter. This allows for precise measurement of the changes that the same families experience over a year and a half.

The first interview conducted with each household is done by telephone -or, if that is not possible, in person or by computer- after prior notification by official letter from the INE to the informant. The subsequent interviews are mostly conducted by telephone, or also online or in person, depending on the informant's preference.

Since it is a continuous survey, the interviews are distributed evenly throughout all the weeks of the year to ensure the quality and comparability of the results.

The questionnaire which lists of the questions and the interview script according to the household's responses can be found on the INE website. Specifically, at this link.

The INE randomly selects households in all census sections of Spain to ensure the geographical representativeness of the EAPS.

The INE will first send a letter to your home address in which you will be informed that you have been selected in the APS sample.

In that letter you will find official information about the survey, as well as contact details so you can verify the authenticity of the correspondence. We will then contact you by phone or in person.

The INE will never request confidential personal information for the EAPS -nor for any of its surveys- by email or SMS.

Yes. The surveys included in the National Statistical Plan, including the EAPS, are mandatory for selected households, in accordance with statistical regulations.

The INE is obliged by the Law of Public Statistical Function to protect the confidentiality of the data provided by the informants. And this ‘statistical secrecy’ governs the entire process of producing and disseminating results.

In the APS the information collected is used exclusively for statistical purposes and is anonymised before dissemination, which prevents the identification of individuals or households.

The APS provides quarterly data on the population aged 16 and over, broken down into these categories:

• Employed: people who have worked at least one hour in the reference week or hold a job from which they are temporarily absent.
• Unemployed: people without a job who have actively sought work in the last four weeks and are available to work. A person is also considered unemployed if, having found a job, they are going to start it within a period of three months or less.
• Active: The active population is the sum of the employed and unemployed population.
• Inactive: people who are not classified as employed or unemployed. For example, students, retirees, home-makers, people living off investments, etc.

The APS publishes activity, unemployment and employment rates at the national level, as well as data for autonomous communities and provinces. Microdata is also disseminated, previously anonymised and with due protection of the informant's confidentiality.

In general, the reference period for the information is the week prior to the interview, while the quarter is the reference period for the results.

The INE publishes the APS results every quarter.

In addition, annual average results for the four quarters, salaries for the main job, and other sub-sample variables are published.

Each year a special module on diverse topics is published.

Yes. The APS results section publishes the sampling errors, as well as other notices and associated technical documentation.

Yes. The INS publishes statistics on economically active population flows (EAPFS), which collects information on the population from one quarter to the previous one in absolute terms regarding their relation with labour market.

This data links the situations in which a person can find themselves in two moments of time on the basis of the EAPS in order to study their evolution.

The EAPS methodology follows the criteria of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat).

The EAPS provides information for the Community Labour Force Survey, ensuring conceptual and methodological harmonisation with its European counterparts, thus ensuring mutual comparability. Therefore, it complies with community regulations that govern, among other aspects, the variables to be analysed, the definitions to be used and the periodicities for each.

The results and functions of the EAPS and other labour market sources are distinct and complementary:

Thus, while the EAPS is a sample survey that classifies people according to their relationship with the activity and is based on stable and internationally harmonised technical criteria, administrative records -such as registered unemployment or Social Security affiliations- depend on legal regulations that can change over time (such as contractual changes, registration requirements, etc.).

In addition, the EAPS includes people who, although they are looking for work, are not registered at public offices and, therefore, are not counted in the registered unemployment data.

Therefore, the levels and variations between these operations may differ. However, the INE publishes comparative studies of EAPS employment and social security affiliation data, as well as EAPS unemployment data and data from public employment services.

All documentation (questionnaires, publications, methodologies, data, series and microdata) is available INEbase.

Labour Force Survey / Questionnaire

INEbase / Labour market / Activity, employment and unemployment / Economically Active Population Survey / Methodology