Labour Force and Commuting for Work Question

Question:

I’m helping a researcher sort out some travel to work data for the CSD of Houston, BC. From this table: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/98-400-X2016325 looking at Houston (DM) we get a labour force of 1065 living in Houston, but the census profile of Houston (DM) gives a labour force size of 1615, and it seems to both of us the difference between the two seems much too large to be due to suppression and random rounding. I’m wondering if there is documentation I’m just missing that would account for this difference?

Answer:

On the first table, your client has given the “universe” or population captured, is people who are employed in the labour force aged 15 years and over who have a usual place of residence. Whereas, in the second table your client is looking at a universe that we would title persons in the labour force aged 15 years and over. We can find this information from looking at either the table title or the profile section title.

Here is a little explanation on why this population is so different from the total labour force that you see on the second table.

Seeing as this table is a commuting flow chart, respondents must have a usual place of work which limits the number of respondents that you see. This helps with the accuracy of the table as those with a flexible work environment are not always commuting to the same place. This table is also only showing those who are employed in the labour force. From reading this definition of both labour force and labour force status we see that those counted in the labour force may have been unemployed during the reference period which would also mean that they would not have an eligible destination to use in the commuting flow chart.

After seeing these differences I would recommend that your client look at journey to work sections of the profile for comparability instead of the labour force sections. You can find this by selecting “Journey to work” using the “Topic” toggle bar at the top of the profile.

One last consideration with this flow chart is that suppression rules do apply to protect the privacy of Canadians. Random rounding has of course been used on all of these tables however as well, there may be some respondents living in Houston ,BC who have a very unique commuting destination. The six possible commuting destinations listed on the first table may therefore not be exhaustive, which would account for the sum of these 6 answers not adding up to exactly the same total as the journey to work universe.

NHS 2011 - Commuter Flow Question

Question:
A couple of years ago I asked a question about some place of work information from the NHS that seemed to indicate a coding error.  People whose residence did not seem to make sense were seen to be working in the Village of Gagetown.  Of course, it turned out that there was a coding error based on respondents entries, and that the place of work was actually [CFB] Gagetown.  I have another such question from the same researcher. 

In looking through the 2011 commuter flow table (99-012-x2011032) for the Chipman/Minto area, he noticed that 45 people are listed as having their place of residence in Red Bank First Nation (Red Bank 4) and their place of work in Chipman Parish.  Given that Red Bank First Nation is more than an hour's drive to Chipman Parish, and given that there's also an area in Chipman Parish called Redbank, he's wondering what he can count on with respect to this data.  He's aware that "place of residence" is the location where respondents are enumerated and does not necessarily represent where respondents were at the time of the NHS; however, given his knowledge of the area he thought the numbers didn't seem realistic and that it might be possible that an error had occurred.  He's not sure, though, so he wanted to see if we could double check on this. 

Answer: 

Thank you for your feedback and observations of the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS) data on place of work (commuting flows).

Aboriginal reserves and settlements have always been a challenge for the automated and manual coding processes in place of work. Some have names that are similar, or identical except for numbers associated with them. We are also dependent on the respondent to fill out their place of work information as completely and accurately as possible. We try to do the best we can at getting them coded correctly.

After investigating the data, it appears as if the records in question should probably have been associated with Red Bank 4 and not Chipman. Unfortunately the processes in place for that cycle did not catch this particular issue.

We continue to work on improving our POW coding and verification processes, and hopefully for 2016 and future cycles you will see such improvements reflected in the data.

2006 Journey to Work data

Question

A faculty member at McMaster needs 2006 Journey to Work data for Moncton-305, Saint John-310 and Saskatoon-725. I have looked into 2006 JTW custom tables that were made available through DLI but I could not find data for these 3 areas. Is there any place else where I should be looking for this data? Has the JTW data been produced for these areas? Any information related to this matter will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for any help!

Answer
Did you try the following tables? They are available on the FTP at: /dli/census/2006/2006_pow_consortium/final_2006_ct_flows/canada

Commuting Flow for Census Metropolitan Areas, Census Agglomerations and Census Tracts: Mode of Transportation (9) and Sex (3) for the Employed Labour Force 15 Years and Over Having a Usual Place of Work, 2006 Census - 20% Sample Data

Catalogue number 97C0088

Commuting Flow for Census Metropolitan Areas, Census Agglomerations and Census Tracts: Work Activity (4) and Sex (3) for the Employed Labour Force 15 Years and Over Having a Usual Place of Work, 2006 Census - 20% Sample Data

Catalogue number 97C0089

Depending on what you are looking for specifically, the tables in the following directory may help:

/ftp/dli/census/2006/2006_pow_consortium/final_2006_cts_static/canada

I also found these tables in the topic-based tabulations section: /dli/census/2006/Topic-based-tabulations/place-of-work-and-commuting-to-work/b2020

Place of Work Status (5), Age Groups (9) and Sex (3) for the Employed
Labour Force 15 Years and Over Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census
Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations - Cat. No. 97-561-X2006006

Commuting Distance (km) (9), Age Groups (9) and Sex (3) for the Employed
Labour Force 15 Years and Over Having a Usual Place of Work Canada,
Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census
Agglomerations - Cat. No. 97-561-X2006010

Mode of Transportation (9), Age Groups (9) and Sex (3) for the Employed
Labour Force 15 Years and Over Having a Usual Place of Work or No Fixed
Workplace Address Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan
Areas and Census Agglomerations - Cat. No. 97-561-X2006012