1. 1 GENDER ISSUES in Labour Household Surveys TURIN, 9-12 Dec.2008 AHMAD HUSSEIN CONSULTANT CONSULTANTahmad.hussein@gmail.com BASED ON DOCUMENTS PREPARED BY MEHRAN AND MATTA

2. 2 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

3. 3 Main concepts and definitions Possible questions Design and preparation Analysis ( Thursday presentation) Labour force household surveys See also Training Compendium Module 1

4. 4 Main concepts Economic activity (“Work”) Economically active population –Employment Inadequate employment, underemployment –Unemployment Inactive population Usual status, current status Age cut-off

5. 5 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)

6. 6 Economic activity (“Work”) Important to measure “work” carefully Requires detailed questions and interviewer probing See paper on measuring economic activities on women and children

7. 7 EMPLOYMENT Employed = persons at work during the reference week, even for one hour Employed = persons at work during the reference week, even for one hour+ persons with a job/business, but temporarily absent from work persons with a job/business, but temporarily absent from work

8. 8UNEMPLOYMENT 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

9. 9UNEMPLOYMENT Special treatment: Future starts Lay-offs Discouraged workers Seasonal workers Provision when labour market largely not organized (relaxed definition)

10. 10 UNDEREMPLOYMENT Time-related underemployment Willing to work additional hours Available to work additional hours Worked less than a threshold relating to working time

11. 11 INEDAQUATE EMPLOYMENT SITUATIONS Skill-related inadequate employment Income-related inadequate employment Inadequate employment related to excessive hours of work

12. 12 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

13. 13 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.

14. 14 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

15. 15 Main data items Sex, age Occupation Segregation Industry, branch of economic activity Status in employment Institutional sector Income from employment EducationTraining Actual hours of work Informal sector, informal contracts

16. 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 non- economic activities Help in understanding segregation between women and men with similar occupations, and why women have less chances of being promoted to supervisory positions

17. 17 Possible questions See examples –IRAQ –JORDAN –Annexes to LFS manual

18. 18 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

19. 19 I wish you every success with your WORKSHOP Thank you Thank you Any Questions? Any Questions?