ECE Work Session on Population Census
Geneve, 23-25 November 2004
METHODS USED TO COLLECT
INFORMATION ON ECONOMIC
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE ECE 2000
ROUND OF POPULATION AND HOUSING
CENSUSES
Social and Demographic Statistics Section
UN Economic Commission for Europe - Statistical Division
UNECE Statistical Division
WS Population Census 2004
Population
Active
Inactive
Student
Employed
Pension or other
Unemployed
Housework
Other
UNECE Statistical Division
WS Population Census 2004
A2. Do you
work?
A1. What is
your activity
status?
A.3 Source of
livelihood
Entry Question
Employed
Unemployed
UNECE Statistical Division
Student
Homework
Pension
WS Population Census 2004
Graph 1: Census M ethodologies
6
17
What is your current activity status?
Did you w ork last w eek?/ Do you w ork?
What are your sources of livelihood?
15
UNECE Statistical Division
WS Population Census 2004
First Approach
employee
Employed
Economic
activity
Unemploy
ed
employer
.
.
Self-employed
.
.
Contributing family worker…
.
Other (Not active)
Economic activity
UNECE Statistical Division
Occupation
Industry
Economic activity
Status in employment
WS Population Census 2004
UNECE Statistical Division
Social
under penal
Conscripts
Own means
Dependent
Maternity
Disable,
Pre-school
Student
Homemaker
Income from
Future job
Unemployed
Looking for a
looking for
Unemployed
Self
Individual
Apprentice
Contributing
Part time and
Working
Working out
Working
In
Graph 2: Categories listed for current activity status in the First
Group
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
WS Population Census 2004
Mix of concepts
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
In employment
Working
Working out of empl.
Working st. pens
Part time and
homemaker
Contributing family
Apprentice
Individual farmer
Self-employed
Unemployed
Looking for job
UNECE Statistical Division
•Unemployed not looking
•Future job guaranteed
•Income from property
•Homemaker
•Student
•Pre-school children
•Disable, pensioner,
retired
•Maternity leave
•Dependent
•Conscript
WS Population Census 2004
Graph 3: Classification of Status in employment for the countries that adopted two
questions to collect activity status and status in employment
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
UNECE Statistical Division
Contributing
family
worker
Member of
producers'
cooperative
Self
employed
without
Self
employed
with
Self
employed
employer
Apprentice
Civil servant
Semi-skilled
worker
Skilled
worker
employee
0
WS Population Census 2004
• Implications for the Revision of the ECE
Recommendations
• Few countries have mixed in one question the
concepts of activity status and status in
employment. Should the new
Recommendations discuss this in more details
by emphasizing the difference between the
two concepts and specifically state whether
this could create confusion or not?
UNECE Statistical Division
WS Population Census 2004
Second Approach
Do you work?
No
Yes
Occupation, status,
industry…
Questions to know if the
person is active or not
Yes
Temporary
absent
UNECE Statistical Division
Unemployed
No
Not active
WS Population Census 2004
UNECE Statistical Division
WS Population Census 2004
UNECE Statistical Division
WS Population Census 2004
Second Approach
More detailed information for the unemployed
population and less for the inactive
population
UNECE Statistical Division
WS Population Census 2004
Third Approach
Sources of livelihood
UNECE Statistical Division
WS Population Census 2004
UNECE Statistical Division
Contributing
family worker
Scolarship
Child care
allowance
Conscripts
Iregular and
casual
Auxiliary
family
Dependant
state aid
Other aid
Unemployed
benefits
Pension
Owner of
enterprise
Income from
property,
farmer
Self employed
with or
Self employed
Wage/ salary/
Work
Categories for sources of livelihood
Graph 6: Categories included in sources of livelihood for Group Three
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
WS Population Census 2004
Categories for sources of livelihood
• Wage/salary work
• Self employed
• Self employed
with/without
• Farmer
• Income from property
• Owner of enterprise
• Pension
• Unemployemnt
benefits
• Other aid
UNECE Statistical Division
•State aid
•Dependent
•Auxillary family
•Conscript
•Child care allowence
•Scholarship
•Contributing family
worker
WS Population Census 2004
Third Approach
• Some of the categories related to the inactive
population are similar to the ones used in the first
two approaches and for sub-populations such as
pensioners it may be possible to have comparable
results. For other categories of the non-active
population it would be difficult to compare data. It
is for example not possible to distinguish students
other than those who had e scholarship.
UNECE Statistical Division
WS Population Census 2004
Implications for the Revision of the ECE
Recommendations
The current ECE Recommendations state that “Information on main
source of livelihood should be obtained for all persons, whether they
are economically active or not, and may not necessary coincide with
the main activity status or the main economic activity of the
person”. Should the recommendations be more explicit in stating
that the concepts of income, activity status, status in employment,
and institutional unit should be kept separated and that source of
livelihood should be collected as a complementary information and
not as a core topic? Some guidelines to countries that wish to keep
time-series with the approach based on source of livelihood could
also be included in the new Recommendations or be developed as a
technical document.
UNECE Statistical Division
WS Population Census 2004
Three approaches

Three purposes?
UNECE Statistical Division
WS Population Census 2004
Graph 7. Percentage of countries that collected information on
Current Activity Status
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1st group (%)
2nd group (%)
UNECE Statistical Division
3rd group (%)
Total %
WS Population Census 2004
Age limit for employment
Countries
No age limit, questions asked to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan,
everybody
Ukraine
11 and over
Greece
12 and over
Turkey
14 and over
France
15 and over
Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Canada,
Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia,
Finland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Poland,
Portugal, Russian Federation, Switzerland
16 and over
United-Kingdom, Spain, Slovakia, Monaco,
Malta
Age limit
UNECE Statistical Division
WS Population Census 2004
Graph 10: Percentage of countries that asked questions on the
Unemployment Criteria
100
90
80
70
"activity status" m ethodology
60
"Do you w ork " m ethodology
50
Sources of livelihood
m ethodology
40
Average index
30
20
10
0
Are you looking for a job?
UNECE Statistical Division
Are you ready to w ork?
WS Population Census 2004
• Implications for the Revision of the ECE
Recommendations
• About 40% of the countries asked the unemployed
population information about previous employment.
The current ECE Recommendations do not include
reference to the collection of information on previous
employment. The World Recommendations mention
that “An unemployed person should be coded to
occupation, industry, status in employment and sector
on the basis of the last job” (para 2.212). Should this be
considered for the new Recommendations as well?
Should a time limit be also included?
UNECE Statistical Division
WS Population Census 2004
Graph 19: Percentage of countries that collected data on
Status in employment
100
90
80
70
1st group (%)
60
2nd group (%)
50
3rd group (%)
40
Total %
30
20
10
UNECE Statistical Division
Person not
classified by
status
Members of
producers' cooperatives
Contributing
family worker
Self
employed/own
account
workers
Employer
Employee
Status in
employment
(CT12)
0
WS Population Census 2004
• Implications for the Revision of the ECE
Recommendations
• There seems to be in the region a different use of the
same terminology with regard to self-employed and
own-account workers. Some countries follow the
ILO classification where self-employed includes all
the categories except employees and other follow the
Eurostat classification where self-employed is linked
to the concept of own-account workers (and
employers for self-employed with employees). The
new Recommendations should consider these
practices and give clear guidelines on how to handle
these differences.
UNECE Statistical Division
WS Population Census 2004
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Census Employment – LFS
Employment
Error term
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
-5%
-10%
-15%
-20%
-25%
-30%
UNECE Statistical Division
WS Population Census 2004