Number crunchers begin workforce survey
(CNS): With a goal to create a more accurate and timely picture of the country’s workforce, the Economics and Statistics Office (ESO) will begin the first Labour Force Survey (LFS) of the year on Sunday. Following announcements by the finance minister that the ESO will revert to its twice yearly schedule, starting this weekend interviewers from the department will be visiting 1,400 randomly selected homes to question people about their work status.
Since 2008, the LFS has been conducted only once a year in October but now the office will conduct a survey each year in the spring as well. The last time a LFS was conducted in April was eight years ago in 2007 but government believes it needs to re-introduce the spring survey to get a better picture of seasonal fluctuation impacting workers.
“The conduct of the LFS twice a year is expected to present a more accurate picture of the employment situation in the country as it takes into account the seasonality of employment opportunities,” Marco Archer, the minister of finance and economic development, said in a short release about the start of the month-long public survey.
The LFS collects data on both the employed and unemployed people, as well as those who are not in the workforce, such as students or retirees. The last LFS conducted in October found 1,859 people in a potential workforce of 39,582 were out of work. Despite some question marks over how government calculates the unemployment rate, the LFS estimated the unemployment rate at 4.7 per cent.
As work on the April survey for 2015 begins, trained interviewers from the ESO will visit 1,400 randomly selected sample households in the three islands over a four-week period. The ESO once again appeals to the public for its full cooperation to provide the necessary information, which will be collected under the Statistics Law (2011 Revision).
The interviews are confidential, and no individual data will be used for publication or disclosed to parties outside of the ESO and the ESO’s survey data is exempt from the Freedom of Information law.
For further information on any aspect of the survey, or results of previous surveys, contact the Economics & Statistics Office at 949-0940 or visit www.eso.ky
