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Labor Market Information Systems and Data Analysis

Kathleen BeegleDevelopment Economics Research GroupAnd Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) groupWorld BankApril 7, 2009

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Data for labor analysis: what can you do and how can you do it?

Focus on quantitative analysis Qualitative analysis is another method of

analysis which is not part of this discussion When under-taking new quantitative data

collection (and even when doing analysis of secondary analysis), you would probably always do some qualitative analysis.

Focus on data needs for analytical work

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Labor data

Many sources of data for labor market analysis. How/if these data can be used will depend on several

factors: Who is eligible to be included?

census v. survey v. administrative records Who reports information?

Household head reporting for all individual members Firm manager reporting on individual staff

What information is reported? Unpaid family labor Women’s domestic work

How often is the data collected? Can it be merged/combined with other data?

LFS combined with rainfall data

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Types of data

Population and Housing census In theory, all residents of the country with

limited information (age, sex, education, migration, “main activity”)

Every 10 years Often source for sampling frame for

household surveys Difficult to get unit-record data but means

are often readily available

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Types of data

Household survey data Topical surveys

Household Budget Surveys (HBS), Income and Expenditure Surveys (IES)

Labor Force Surveys (LFS) ILO SIMPOC surveys (Statistical Information and

Monitoring Programme on Child Labour part of IPECL)

Demographic and Health Surveys Integrated Household Surveys (LSMS, FLS) include

income & non-income dimensions of living standards

www.worldbank.org\lsms www.rand.org\FLS

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Types of data

Administrative data (records) From companies or from governments (local,

regional, national) Firm/enterprise surveys

rru.worldbank.org/EnterpriseSurveys/ Rural investment climate surveys

Non-labor data is also relevant…examples: Price data (to deflate nominal values) Infrastructure information (access to

markets)

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Data producers

National statistical office policies of access to unit-record data vary

Multi-laterals: ILO, World Bank, IDB Not systematically public

Researchers Not systematically public

How to find data: not so easy! IHHSN

www.internationalsurveynetwork.org/home WB’s DDP (e.g. Africa Household Survey Data

bank)

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A “simple” labor question may embed many demands on data

Single topic surveys may lack breadth of topics (eg: measure of poverty status)

LSMS surveys may lack depth (eg: willingness to co-pay for health insurance, pension contributions for civil servants)

Administrative data: little background information on respondents (eg: education level)

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Unemployment & Poverty

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1015202530354045

Segovia West Managua South Central North Atlantic

Poverty

Unemployment

Nicaragua, 1993

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UNE and Poverty: what data would you need?

“ILO” definition of unemployment Did you work (for at least 1 hour) in the last 7 days

Does this include working as unpaid family labor on the hh farm?

Does this include the wife who worked 2 hours in the hh’s non-farm business?

If no, do you have a regular job (on leave/sick) to which you will return?

If no, have you searched for work in the past 4 weeks?

3+ questions, asked of all household members.

In low-income countries, you find few who qualify as unemployed

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UNE and Poverty: what data would you need?

Poverty status of household (detailed consumption module)

Sufficient sample sizes in each region to generate reliable unemployment statistics

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Employment and Poverty Indicators

Sample Means

Poor below food

poverty line

Between food poverty line and

poverty lineNonpoor Total

Household members who have worked during the past week (%)

39.4 43.6 46.6 44.8

Number of jobs per household member during the past week

0.5 0.6 0.7 0.6

Average monthly wage from primary occupation

65,948 99,706 103,438 98,401

Children under 15 who were employed during the past week (%)

5.8 5.8 4.5 5.0

Cambodia 1997

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Employment and Poverty: What data would you need?

Poverty status of household Work status of individual household members,

including children under 15 (often missing) Information on working and number of jobs

wrt to some time period – last week, month year Wage data

imputed wages for self-employed? In-kind value of wage payments (housing, food) Difficult to annualize

CPI to convert price data from nominal to real values (spatial and temporal price data)

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Private Rates of Return to Schooling by Level of Education

Education Level All Males Females

Public Sector

Private Sector

Primary (v. less than primary)

13 4* 21 -27* 23

Secondary (v. primary)

5 4 6 6 4

Vocational (v. primary)

4 5 5 6 **

University (v. secondary)

11 10 12 11 **

*Not statistically significant **Not enough observations

Vietnam 1992/93

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RTE: What data would you need?

Sector of work (maybe including second or thirds jobs?)

Wages (real values) Education level

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Time Spent on Activities

Average Minutes

Accra Other Coastal Forest Savannah

Fetching wood Male 9 51 21 28 33

Female 5 45 30 33 46

All 6 47 27 32 43

Fetching Water Male 22 34 26 24 44

Female 27 35 32 40 58

All 25 35 30 38 54

Child care Male 170 95 146 101 84

Female 251 182 215 243 144

All 230 167 203 209 129

Urban Rural

Ghana 1998-99

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Time Use: What data would you need?

Reported time use across distinct sub-categories of activities asked of every individual member of the household Fetching water and collecting firewood:

does this include waiting time? does it include walking to the source

What if farming is combined with child-care?

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What data would you need?

MDG 3: Share of women in wage employment in the nonagricultural sector

Impact of credit access on entry into self-employment

Ex-post impact of minimum wage legislation

Ex-ante impact of proposed changes changes to pension system

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Data analysis of labor issues: Challenges

What if? Posing hypothetical situations to respondents (willingness to pay/contingent valuation) Reliability of complicated questions on

tradeoffs today with future returns Consistency in definitions across time

and space Relevance of international definitions

Unemployment in SSA v. ILO definition Impact: Identifying appropriate control

groups

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Data analysis of labor issues: challenges

Seasonality Means are deceiving How to measure labor bottlenecks?

Rare events: Difficult to measure/assess rare events in large-scale LSMS-type surveys Impact of HIV/AIDS on absenteeism LM outcomes for disabled Children involved in dangerous work

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Malawi Time Use 2004

Male 15+ Female 15+

Mean Median %<10

hrs Mean Median %<10

hrs

Mar-04 27.6 24 28.8 27.2 22.5 28.3 Apr-04 29.6 28 20.2 25.8 23.5 26.6

May-04 26.4 24 27.7 25.4 23.5 23.7 Jun-04 27.7 28 24.9 25.5 22 29.1 Jul-04 27.0 24 23.1 23.2 20 30.9

Aug-04 26.3 24 25.3 24.3 21 26.1 Sep-04 28.2 24 23.6 25.1 22 26.8 Oct-04 29.0 28 21.7 28.5 27 19.3 Nov-04 31.8 31 16.2 31.0 30 18.3 Dec-04 35.0 35 8.5 32.3 32 14.1 Jan-05 33.5 32 10.8 31.7 30.5 12.0 Feb-05 28.9 28 18.2 27.8 26 20.0 Mar-05 29.9 29 20.1 26.8 23.5 24.9

Source: Malawi IHS2. Note: Total time in last week: fetching water, collecting firewood, working on household farm, working in household non-farm business, and wage or salary work. Includes unpaid family labor in household income generating activities.

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Conclusions

Lots of data, but (usually) no one source has it all

Search for your data: good literature review may reveal some ideal data

Be creative. combine data across sources (LSMS with administrative data)

Be realistic about what you can and can’t answer

Pay attention to the details of your data source

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Web Source of Information on Household Surveys with Labor Data

LFS www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=1537 www.census.gov www.ilo.org/dyn/lfsurvey/lfsurvey.list?p_lang=en

LSMS www.worldbank.org/lsms

DHS www.measuredhs.com

MICs www.unicef.org/statistics/index_24303.html www.childinfo.org

IES/HBS www.bls.gov/cex/home.htm europa.eu.int/estatref/info/sdds/en/hbs/hbs_base.htm

CWIQ www.worldbank.org/afr/stat

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http://www.ilo.org/dyn/lfsurvey/lfsurvey.list?p_lang=en