Labour force survey to be done quarterly |23 January 2014

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has announced that the Labour Force Survey will be done quarterly instead of every five years as was the case in the past.

The Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) will be an ongoing continuous activity which will be mainstreamed in the NBS’ annual work programme.

The announcement was made in a presentation made yesterday at the Care House by the chief executive officer of NBS, Laura Ah Time, in the presence of principal secretaries, chief executives and NBS staff.

“Choosing to embark on a continuous QLFS has come about because there is a demand for high frequency indicators. This is where the relevance, credibility and timeliness criteria of statistics fit in,” Miss Ah Time said.

She added that it is essentially a requirement that high frequency labour market indicators be compiled and published if Seychelles is to meet internationally recognised standards and promote best practices.

The QLFS will provide a regular, timely and comprehensive portrayal of Seychelles’ labour force.

Each quarter NBS will produce a range of statistics relating to employment, unemployment and people not in the labour force, that is people under 15 years of age and people above 65 years of age.

“I would like to emphasise that the success of the activities and quality of products of the bureau is dependent not only on the work of the NBS but also on the concerted efforts of partners in the national statistical system,” Miss Ah Time said.

“I will go even further to include households because without their willingness and cooperation to respond to our survey questionnaires, most of our household based data collection exercise, which make up the source of our primary data would be flawed/deficient/incomplete/lacking,” she added.
 
Statistics play a fundamental role in the formulation of economic and social development policies, implementation strategies and monitoring and assessment. Data collection and statistics remain the cornerstone of evidence-based decision-making and data collection, compilation, analysis and distribution are the core activities of the NBS.