GENDER ISSUES
in Labour Household Surveys
TURIN, 9-12 Dec.2008
AHMAD HUSSEIN
CONSULTANT
ahmad.hussein@gmail.com
BASED ON DOCUMENTS PREPARED BY MEHRAN AND MATTA
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Sources of employment and
unemployment data
Labour force surveys, population
censuses, other household surveys
Establishment surveys and censuses
– not unemployment data
– employment in small enterprises not well covered
Administrative records
– social security files, income tax returns, employment
offices records, unemployment insurance data
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Labour force household surveys
See also Training Compendium Module 1
Main concepts and definitions
Possible questions
Design and preparation
Analysis ( Thursday presentation)
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Main concepts
Economic activity (“Work”)
Economically active population
– Employment
Inadequate employment, underemployment
– Unemployment
Inactive population
Usual status, current status
Age cut-off
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Economic activity (“Work”)
Activities within production boundary as
defined by the System of National
Accounts (SNA) production boundary
(see Figure 1b of TrainingCompendium)
Production of all goods, for pay or for
own-use
Production of services for pay
Certain production of services for own
consumption (wood, water carrying)
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Economic activity (“Work”)
Important to measure “work” carefully
Requires detailed questions and
interviewer probing
See paper on measuring economic
activities on women and children
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EMPLOYMENT
Employed = persons at work during the
reference week, even for one
hour
+
persons with a job/business,
but temporarily absent from
work
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UNEMPLOYMENT
Three criteria
Not employed during the reference
week
Currently available for work
Actively seeking work in a recent
past (such as last 4 weeks)
Strict definition:
– All three criteria
Relaxed definition:
– Only first two criteria
– Discouraged workers
8
UNEMPLOYMENT
Special treatment:
Future starts
Lay-offs
Discouraged workers
Seasonal workers
Provision when labour market largely not
organized (relaxed definition)
9
UNDEREMPLOYMENT
Time-related underemployment
Willing to work additional hours
Available to work additional hours
Worked less than a threshold relating
to working time
10
INEDAQUATE EMPLOYMENT
SITUATIONS
Skill-related inadequate employment
Income-related inadequate
employment
Inadequate employment related to
excessive hours of work
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Current activity status versus usual
activity status
Current:
– Over a short period of time such as one day
or one week
Usual:
– Over a long period of time such as the last 12
months
12
Current activity status versus usual
activity status
Current:
– Permits more detailed questions
– Most common basis of LFS
Usual:
– Less detailed questions due to memory problems
– Valuable if survey operations are of less than 12 months
– More difficult for users to understand
– See page 67-69 of Training Module 1.
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Age cut-off
International standard: 15 years or more
Some countries 10+ or 12+
No upper age cut-off
– LFS questions should be asked of elderly
Children:
– If important economic activity contributions by
children, then ask LFS questions (or sub-set of
them) of those aged 5 to 14
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Main data items
Sex, age
Occupation Segregation
Industry, branch of economic activity
Status in employment
Institutional sector
Income from employment
Education
Training
Actual hours of work
Informal sector, informal contracts
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Time use surveys
Useful to account for the time spent by the population in all
type of activities, economic or non-economic, during the
reference period
Time use surveys are able to improve the precession and
reduce biases
Useful to identify multiple and marginal activities
Suitable to identify the number of workers
Able to measure total time work spent on economic and noneconomic activities
Help in understanding segregation between women and men
with similar occupations, and why women have less chances
of being promoted to supervisory positions
Possible questions
See examples
– IRAQ
– JORDAN
– Annexes to LFS manual
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Design and implementation
(see details in Iraq Labour force household survey 2006,
questionnaire distributed )
User needs and priorities /User committee
Continuing or occasional survey, reference periods
Table specification, table content
Questionnaire(s) and manual
Sample design:
– urban/rural, size, distribution, seasonality, rotation (if on-going)
Field operations, publicity, choice of respondent
Data processing specification, computer programs,
coding, decentralization
Training and monitoring of staff
Testing, revision before implementation
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I wish you every success with
your WORKSHOP
Thank you
Any Questions?
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