Labor Force Survey 2017
Bangladesh, 2017
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BGD_2017_LFS_v01_M
Labor Force Survey 2017
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| Bangladesh | BGD |
Labor Force Survey [hh/lfs]
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has initiated the labor force survey on a quarterly basis, to measure the levels and trends of employment, unemployment and labor force in the country on a continuous basis. In the past, labor force surveys conducted at four-five yearly time intervals since 1980.
Detailed information on labor force characteristics has been collected from representative sample of 123 thousand households to produce gender disaggregated national and divisional level estimates with urban/rural/city corporation breakdown. The survey also provides quarterly representative results and sample size for each quarter was 30,816 households. The survey, along with the quantification of core variables, also estimates important attributes of literacy, migration, own use production of goods and own use provision of services, volunteer work, occupational safety and health etc.
The estimates are profiled according to latest classifications viz Bangladesh Standard Industrial Classification (BSIC 2009 based on ISIC rev-4) and Bangladesh Standard Classification of Occupations (BSCO- 2012 in line with ISCO-2008).
The primary objective of the survey was to collect comprehensive data on the Labor Force, employment and unemployment of the population aged 15 or older for use by the Government, international organizations, NGOs, researchers and others to efficiently provide targeted interventions. Specific objectives of the survey:
- Provide relevant information regarding the characteristics of the population and household that relate to housing, household size, female-headed households;
- Provide detailed information on education and training, such as literacy, educational attainment and vocational training;
- Provide relevant information on economic activities and the labor force regarding the working-age population, economic activity status and Labor Force participation;
- Provide detailed information on employment and informal employment by occupation and industry, education level and status in employment;
- Provide relevant information on unemployment, the youth labor force participation, youth employment, and youth unemployment;
- Provide other information on decent work regarding earnings from employment, working hours and time-related underemployment, quality and stability of employment, social security coverage, and safety at work, equal opportunities;
- Provide relevant information on non-economic activities, volunteer activities etc.
Sample survey data [ssd]
- Individual
- Household
Version
Version 01
2017-12-01
Scope
The survey covered the following topics:
- Labor force participation rate
- Employment-to-population ratio
- Status in employment
- Employment by sector
- Employment by occupation
- Part-time workers
- Hours of work
- Employment in the informal economy
- Unemployment
- Youth unemployment
- Long-term unemployment
- Time-related underemployment
- Not in labor force
- Educational attainment and illiteracy
- Average monthly wages
| Topic | Vocabulary |
|---|---|
| Employment | ILO |
| Unemployment | ILO |
| Underemployment | ILO |
| Labour Force | ILO |
| Part-time workers | ILO |
| Youth employment | ILO |
| Education | ILO |
| Environment | ILO |
| Health | ILO |
| Household Income | ILO |
| Gender | ILO |
| Wages | ILO |
| Migration & Remittances | ILO |
Coverage
National coverage
Producers and sponsors
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics | Government of Bangladesh |
| Name |
|---|
| International Labour Organization |
Survey instrument
The quarterly Labor Force Survey questionnaire comprised of 14 sections:
Section 1. Household basic information
Section 2. Household roster (members' basic information)
Section 3. General education (for persons aged 5 years or older) & vocational training (for persons aged 15 years or older)
Section 4. Working status (for persons aged 15 years or older)
Section 5. Main activities (for persons aged 15 years or older)
Section 6. Secondary activities (for employed persons aged 15 years or older)
Section 7. Occupational safety and health within the previous 12 months (for persons aged 15 years or older)
Section 8. Time-related underemployment (for employed persons aged 15 years or older)
Section 9. Unemployment (for not employed persons aged 15 years or older)
Section 10. Own use production of goods (for persons aged 15 years or older)
Section 11. Own use provision of services (for persons aged 15 years or older)
Section 12. Unpaid trainee/apprentice work (for persons aged 15 years or older)
Section 13. Volunteer work (for persons aged 15 years or older)
Section 14. Migration (for persons aged 15 years or older)
Data collection
| Start | End |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 2017 |
| Start date | End date |
|---|---|
| 2017-01 | 2017-12 |
| Name |
|---|
| Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics |
To properly conduct the nationwide survey, intensive training programs were arranged for the survey supervisors and enumerators as well as the survey coordinators. In total, 107 enumerators, among them 94 females and 84 supervising officers, were involved and received seven days of training on data collection. The training consisted of five days for training, one day for field testing and one day for reviewing. The training covered instructions in general interviewing techniques, field procedures (including sample selection), a detailed discussion of items on the questionnaire and practice interviews in the field.
To aid in identification and access to the household, letters of introduction highlighting survey objectives and identification badges were provided to the Enumerators. Enumerators were advised to visit the households to introduce themselves prior to administer the Questionnaire. Supervising officer also sometimes went for courtesy calls to the households. It took the enumerators approximately 30-40 minutes to administer the questionnaire depending on the size of the household. Most of the teams managed to collect the data within the stipulated timeframe. Data collection was carried out using personal interview approach. Officers from BBS and outsourcing Enumerators who were involved in this survey were given special training. They visited selected households (HH) to collect information on demography, labor force, non-economic activities using a set of questionnaires. Field checks were undertaken by experienced officers from the BBS & SID to detect and rectify any invalid information occurred during interview session. In addition, follow-up/re-interviews of certain selected households was done to ensure the quality of data collected.
Data processing
Editing and processing errors, several consistency checks were done, both manually and computerized program using CSPro; batch editing was done using Stata, to ensure the quality and acceptability of the data produced. The non-sampling error is to ensure high quality data, several steps were taken to minimize non-sampling errors. Unlike sampling errors, these errors cannot be measured and can only be overcome through several administrative procedures. These errors can arise as a result of incomplete survey coverage, frame defect, response error, non-response and processing errors such as during editing, coding and data capture.
Data appraisal
Sampling error is a result of estimating data based on a probability sampling, not on census. Such error in statistics is termed as relative standard error and often denoted as RSE which is given in percentage. This error is an indication to the precision of the parameter under study. In other words, it reflects the extent of variation with other sample-based estimates. Sampling errors of estimates on a few important variables at national levels are calculated separately as shown in the annex. For example, the labor force participation rate at the national level was 67.0 per cent with an RSE of 0.23 per cent and standard error (SE) of 0.16 per cent. At 95 per cent confidence interval (a = 0.05), the labor force participation rate was in the range of 66.69-67.31 per cent.
Data Access
| Name | Affiliation | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics | Government of Bangladesh | http://www.bbs.gov.bd/home.aspx | dg@bbs.gov.bd |
| Is signing of a confidentiality declaration required? | Confidentiality declaration text |
|---|---|
| yes | Personal information will not be disclosed. |
Public use files, accessible to all.
Use of the dataset must be acknowledged using a citation which would include:
- the Identification of the Primary Investigator
- the title of the survey (including country, acronym and year of implementation)
- the survey reference number
- the source and date of download
Example:
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Bangladesh Labor Force Survey (LFS) 2017. Ref. BGD_2017_LFS_v01_M. Dataset downloaded from http://www.bbs.gov.bd/home.aspx on 23.10.2017.
Disclaimer and copyrights
The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics | Government of Bangladesh | mdkali0501@gmail.com | http://www.bbs.gov.bd/ |
Metadata production
DDI_BGD_2017_LFS_v01_M
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Statistics | Internationa Labour Organization | Producer of DDI |
2017-07-24
Metadata version
Version 01 (October 2019). This version is identical to a documentation (DDI_BGD_2017_LFS_v01_M_ILO) available at ILO Microdata Repository website except for the following fields that were edited by the World Bank: Document ID and Study ID.