Integrated Labour Force Survey 2008
Lesotho, 2008
Identification
LSO_2008_ILFS_v01_M
Integrated Labour Force Survey 2008
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| Lesotho | LSO |
Labor Force Survey [hh/lfs]
Since 1985 the Bureau of Statistics (BoS) has undertaken a series of surveys in relation to the labour force, and the last one was conducted in 1999.
In May 2008, the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MoFDP), through its Department of the Bureau of Statistics, undertook the Integrated Labour Force Survey (ILFS) which was mainly meant to provide additional information of the demographic characteristics of the population and to provide reliable information on the Labour Force to be used as guidelines for planning of employment strategies and also to assess the social effects of government employment policies.
In the 2008 ILFS a module on informal sector employment and informal employment was incorporated. This emanated from the observation that lack of information on the informal economy in official statistics limits the assessment of the real economy e.g. measurement of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), women’s participation in the labour force limits international comparability of data on the labour force.
The survey is important for obtaining information about the size, composition and the characteristics of the labour force. The survey also captured information on economic activity status of the population, unemployment, underemployment and occupational characteristics of the employed. Furthermore, the participation of different categories of the population such as children and youth in the labour force is assessed. The 2008 ILFS further was meant to collect the information on informal sector at household level. The information from the ILFS will therefore help the government to:
- Assess the current economic activity of the population, size and composition of the labour force,
- Evaluate the kind of jobs which must be provided if the unemployment and underemployment are to be minimized,
- Assess the participation of different categories of the population like women and the youths in the labour force,
- Assess the unemployment and underemployment levels within the country,
- Assess the characteristics of the informal sector in terms of the employment and under employment.
Sample survey data [ssd]
Population aged 15 years and older
Scope
The scope of the study includes:
Population in the labour force
- Economic activity
- Employed population
- Employment and earnings
- Employment in secondary activities
- Unemployment
- Under-employment
- Informal sector
- Migration
- Child labour
- Youth
- Non-market activities
- Household characteristics and amenities
Coverage
National
Producers and sponsors
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Bureau of Statistics | Ministry of Finance and Development Planning |
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Department of the National Employment Services | Ministry of Employment and Labor |
| Name |
|---|
| Government of Lesotho |
Sampling
The Sample design for the 2008 Integrated Labour Force Survey is a two-stage stratified sample design. The stratifying variables being the agro-ecological zones, namely Lowland, Foothill, Mountain as well as Senqu River valley. Rural and urban areas were other stratifying variables. The selection of sampling units followed the following stages:
-
The first stage referred to as the Primary Sampling Units (PSU's) involved the selection of the Enumeration Areas (EA's). The enumeration areas were selected with Probability Proportional to Size (PPS) of an EA or a sampling unit. The number of households within the PSUs serves as a Measure of Size (MOS). Probability Proportionate to size method of selecting first stage sampling units is meant to control the effects of variability in primary sampling unit or cluster size as opposed to selecting them at random.
-
The Second Stage Sampling Units (SSU's) are the households. They were selected systematically within the selected primary sampling units.
A sample size of six hundred (600) enumeration areas was selected countrywide. This sample size has been allocated proportionally to various strata. In each primary sampling unit, twenty (20) households were selected. This resulted in twelve thousands (600*20) households as the total selected households.
Out of a total sample of 12,000 households, 11,406 households responded giving a response rate of about 95.1 percent. The 4.9 percent was made up of “not found” households and refusals. The rural response rate was 95.8 percent while in the urban stratum the response rate was 93.0 percent. The observed variation in rural and urban response rates is not unusual as rural respondents have always cooperated better than their urban counterparts in almost all previous surveys. The overall response in each district gave reasonable estimates and hence their data can therefore be used for planning, monitoring and evaluation of sector programmes.
Data collection
| Start |
|---|
| 2008-05 |
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Bureau of Statistics | Ministry of Finance and Development Planning |
There were two instruments that were used for data collection. These were the survey questionnaire and the related survey manual. The manual was mainly used as the instructional tool for training of enumerators.
Training of the field staff was conducted over the period of one month. The training was comprehensive and very intensive. The following topics were covered during the training:
- Map reading
- How to complete the questionnaire
- Sample selection procedures
- Interviewing techniques
Mock interviews were also conducted to give practice to the trainees.
The fieldwork for the survey was conducted using twenty-four mobile team arrangements. Each team was composed of 1 supervisor and 3 or 4 enumerators. Each team was allocated a vehicle, which was either a government or a hired vehicle for the duration of data collection period. A team covered 25 enumeration areas which were equivalent to 500 households. These enumeration areas were grouped in such a manner that allowed each team to cover all the ecological zones as well as the urban and rural areas.
Data Access
| Name | URL | |
|---|---|---|
| Bureau of Statistics | www.bos.gov.ls | ilfs@bos.gov.ls |
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:
Department of the Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Finance and Development Planning. Integrated Labour Force Survey 2008. Ref. LSO_2008_ILFS_v01_M. Dataset downloaded from [website] on [date].
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 | URL | |
|---|---|---|
| Bureau of Statistics | ilfs@bos.gov.ls | www.bos.gov.ls |
Metadata production
DDI_LSO_2008_ILFS_v01_M_WB
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Development Data Group | The World Bank | Documentation of the DDI |
2014-04-25
Metadata version
Version 01