This paper investigates the effect of several survey questionnaire characteristics on employment
statistics. It also assess the differences in sensitivity to survey design across gender
and living area. Indeed, as suggested in the literature, women, especially those living in rural
areas, are expected to be more sensitive than men to survey design, due to both the nature of
the work (seasonal, occasional, temporary, informal, unpaid family work) and social norms.
In many African countries, labor force surveys are not available on a regular basis and the
way existing household surveys and census measure employment differs greatly, both over
time and between countries. This makes it difficult to properly study labor market dynamics
and to draw meaningful policy recommendations. Using about fifty surveys and censuses
collected in Cameroon, Mali and Senegal between 1976 and 2012, we first review the diversity
of survey instruments used and highlight the key questionnaire characteristics that are
likely to affect employment statistics. Exploiting within-survey variations of the wording of
questions, the detail of the labor module and the length of the reference period, we then
assess the effect of these features on labor statistics. Empirical results shows significant
effects of each questionnaire feature and suggest that women are not systematically more
sensitive than men to survey design, nor is it the case for rural individuals compared to
urban ones.