Sri Lanka (1)
Title of the survey
Annual Employment Survey
Organization responsible
Department of Labour.
Periodicity of the survey
Annual (in June).
Objectives of the survey
To collect data on employment in order to construct an index of
employment and to study employment trends in the economy.
Main labour topics covered by the survey
Employment.
Reference period
Last full working day of the month of June.
Coverage of the survey
Geographical
The whole country.
Industrial
All branches of economic activity.
Establishments
All establishments with five or more paid employees and engaged in
productive, distributive, business or commercial activities in the
private and public sectors.
Persons
All paid employees and outworkers.
Excluded are working proprietors, home workers
and unpaid family workers.
Occupations
All occupations are covered.
Concepts and definitions
Employment
Data refer to employees. An employee is defined as a person
who is working in the establishment and receiving remuneration in the
form of wages, salaries, commission or piece rates, on the last full
working day of the month of June. Working directors, apprentices,
trainees, etc., casual, temporary and seasonal workers, part-time
workers, and persons temporarily absent from work because of leave,
sickness, etc. are included.
Excluded are employees
temporarily absent from the payroll during notice periods preceding
retirement, resignation or dismissal.
The data on employees are collected separately for men and women, and
according to the following categories:
- administrative and managerial workers (including senior executives);
- professional, technical and related workers (including both junior
and senior technical staff);
- clerical and related workers (including junior executives and
clerical supervisors);
- sales workers (including sales supervisors and managers of small
shops and boutiques);
- foremen and supervisors (including persons running small service
establishments like restaurants, bars, boarding house, etc.);
- skilled and semi-skilled workers (including apprentices and
trade learners);
- unskilled workers, working on job not requiring pre-employment
training.
In addition, the number of employees on payroll on the reference day
is distributed by citizenship (Sri Lankan and non-Sri Lankan) and type
of contract: permanent, temporary, casual, and learners and
apprentices.
Earnings
Not relevant.
Wage/salary rates
Not relevant.
Hours of work
Not relevant.
Classifications
Industrial
Employees are allocated to the activity code of the establishment
in which they are employed, and classified according to the
major divisions and major groups of the
International Standard Industrial Classification of all
economic activities (ISIC), Rev. 2, 1968.
Occupational
The data on employees are classified according to the seven major
occupational groups of the International Standard Classification of
Occupations (ISCO-68).
Others
The survey data are also classified according to:
- sex;
- citizenship (Sri Lankan or non-Sri Lankan);
- permanent or temporary;
- age (adult or under 18 years of age);
- district (25 districts);
- private or public sector;
- size of establishment (5 to 10 employees, 11 to 25, 26 to 50,
51 to 100, more than 100).
Sample size and design
Statistical unit
The reporting unit is the establishment, defined as a
farm, estate, mine, factory, workshop, store, office, business place,
restaurant, shop, etc., under single ownership or control, located at
one place or contiguous area and engaged in one or predominantly one
kind of economic activity.
Survey universe / sample frame
A complete list of establishments was available at the time of the first
survey (1971), which was used as the sample frame. It was prepared on
the basis of the listing of all buildings in the country at the time of
the 1971 Census of Population and Housing. At that time, there were
about 22,500 establishments with five or more paid employees.
Thereafter, this list has been updated annually on the basis of the new
registrations recorded on the lists of the
Employees Provident Fund.
Sample design
The survey is a complete enumeration of establishments with five or
more paid employees.
Field work
Data collection
This takes place in July of each year, by means of mailed
questionnaires. The survey organization comprises the staff of the
Statistics Division of the Department of Labour.
Survey questionnaire
This consists of a two-page form which comprises three sections:
- section I collects information on the establishment's
characteristics;
- section II collects data on the number of employees on payroll on
the last full working day of June, by citizenship and type of employment
contract;
- section III collects data on the distribution of these employees by
sex, age group and occupational category.
It also collects information on any large change in employment which may
have occurred as compared with the previous year, and the reasons for
this change. One page of explanatory notes and definitions is provided
along with the questionnaire.
Substitution of sampling units
Not relevant.
Data processing and editing
Data are edited and coded by hand at the Statistics Division, then
entered onto a mainframe computer.
Types of estimates
Totals.
Construction of indices
Index numbers of employment are calculated with 1971 as the base year,
using the link relative method. Indices are computed for each
major industry division.
Weighting of sample results
The employment estimates are not weighted.
Adjustments
Non-response
There is no adjustment for non-response.
Other bias
No adjustments are made for any other bias.
Use of benchmark data
None.
Seasonal variations
Not relevant.
Indicators of reliability of the estimates
Coverage of the sampling frame
Coverage is limited to those establishments which were on the original
sample frame, updated by the new registrations recorded by the Employees
Provident Fund. There is no complete and updated list of establishments
for the whole country.
Sampling error / sampling variance
Not relevant.
Non-response rate
In 1991, about 25 to 30 per cent of establishments
did not respond.
Non-sampling errors
The main known source of bias is the limited coverage of the survey.
Conformity with other sources
Not relevant.
Available series
Published tables include the number of paid employees and the number
of establishments:
- by industry and sector;
- by industry and district;
- by industry and size of establishment.
and the number of paid employees:
- by sex, citizenship and district;
- by sex, occupational category, sector and industry;
- by sex, adult or under 18, industry and sector.
History of the survey
The survey began in 1971 and since then, it has been conducted on a
regular basis, without any major changes.
The preparation of a complete list of establishments for the whole
country is being planned.
Documentation
Department of Labour: Employment Survey (annual, Colombo).
The results are published each year, about 12 to 18 months after the
survey reference period.
Data for small areas and detailed industrial classifications,
that do not appear in the national publication, can
be made available on request.
Confidentiality / Reliability criteria
There are no restrictions on the publication of the survey results,
except that data in respect of a single establishment cannot be
released.
Other information
Data supplied to the ILO for publication
Data on paid employment are published in Tables 3A, 3B and 4
of the Yearbook Labour Statistics.