Bi-annual labour
survey starts today
PHILIPSBURG--Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) interviewers visit 1,800 randomly selected households starting today for the next seven weeks to compile information for the bi-annual island labour survey that establishes the unemployment figure amongst other data.
Twenty interviewers have been specially trained to gather and record information from the households allotted to them from the random sample.
Based on the population, a total of 1,250 households were supposed to be interviewed. However, CBS has allowed for non-responsive interviewees due to change of address, refusal to participate and other issues, and has made a random computer-generated selection of 1,800 households, CBS Fieldwork Department Head Gilbert Bishop told The Daily Herald Wednesday.
A household is classified as any number of people living under the same roof and sharing kitchen and living room, he explained. Interviewers have to collect data from each person living in a household. If an address has become an apartment complex, the interviewer has to collect data from all persons living at the address. All persons age 15 and up in a household who have been residing on the island for more then three months must be interviewed.
The selected households have been informed of the interviewer’s visit via a letter and a flyer sent to the address by CBS. Ten per cent of the interviewers’ households will be double-checked by CBS personnel to ensure accuracy.
Providing information for this survey is mandated by law, but CBS is lenient with interviewees if they are unable to participate, such as very elderly people or if there is a language barrier that prevents interviewers from effectively communicating with interviewees, Bishop said.
The data is collected based on the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO’s) definition and methods. The survey is aimed at measuring employment, unemployment and labour participation rate, CBS Senior Statistician for Labour and Income Statistics Zaida Lake said.
The information gathered is useful to government, policy makers, non-governmental organisations and international funding agencies such as the World Bank.
Bishop and Lake encourage all persons living at the selected addressed to cooperate with the interviewers. All of the information collected is confidential and is entered into CBS’ computer database in coded format.
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