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FILE STRUCTURE

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LEVEL STRUCTURE

The Longitudinal Labour Force Survey (LLFS) CURF is provided as a single flat file, which is structured into 3 levels:

• Household/Dwelling,
• Family, and
• Person.

Furthermore, since the LLFS spans multiple time periods, the Survey month also acts like an additional level.

Structurally, the three levels are in a hierarchical relationship, although some people are not members of family groups, and are therefore one level below household (e.g. group households, unrelated individuals living in family households - see Relationship in Household [RELHHCE]). Each person is either a member of a family or a member of a household, and families are groups within households.


A household may have one family, more than one family, or no families with only unrelated individuals living together or people living alone. Families always have more than one person - people who live alone are not members of a family group. There are 'dummy' or 'Not applicable' data item categories for those instances where someone does not contribute to the family level (typically, a '99' code is used).

For more information on families and how ABS defines family and household characteristics, refer to the publication Family, Household and Income Unit Variables, 2005 (cat. no. 1286.0).

People in special dwellings (see Residence status [URSTATC]) are treated as lone individuals with no family characteristics. The records of people in special dwellings are structured in a single level, with each person assigned to a different household, regardless of whether they were interviewed in the same special dwelling. This is because;

• Any relationships that exist between people in a special dwelling are not recorded in the LFS, so no additional information can be gained from grouping people who were interviewed in the same special dwelling.


• Special dwellings are assembled as cross-sectional ('point-in-time') measurements and are not linked longitudinally. This is because there can be no certainty in making links to records across time, as the people interviewed in hotels, prisons, boarding schools, etc. are subject to change.

Refer to Identifiers to learn more about how the different levels are identified in the LLFS CURF.

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