Zimbabwe
Title of the survey
Quarterly Employment Inquiry
Organization responsible
Central Statistical Office
Periodicity of the survey
Quarterly, in March, June, September and December.
Objectives of the survey
To collect current labour force statistics in the formal sector of the
economy.
The survey results are used by the Government for manpower planning; by
employers for policy formulation; by employers' and workers'
organizations; by businessmen who wish to study the potential market
for consumer goods and services; and by researchers, scholars,
economists, etc.
Main labour topics covered by the survey
Employment, earnings and compensation of employees.
Reference period
For employment: the last pay day or last working day of each quarter.
For earnings and compensation of employees: the whole quarter.
Coverage of the survey
Geographical
The whole country.
Industrial
All divisions of economic activity, except the armed forces and
agriculture, but the service activities related to agriculture are
covered.
The large scale commercial agricultural sector is covered by the
quarterly Agricultural Census, and the labour statistics so obtained are
combined with the results of the Quarterly Employment Inquiry.
Establishments
In March, June and December, establishments with ten or more employees
in the formal sector.
Once a year, in September, establishments of all types and sizes in the
formal sector. However, because of data collection difficulties, the
statistics exclude employees of small agricultural units and small
businesses in rural areas.
Persons
All persons engaged.
Occupations
Data are not collected on individual occupations.
Concepts and definitions
Employment
All persons engaged include:
- Working proprietors and partners of businesses not registered as
limited liability companies, unpaid family workers working for at least
15 hours a week or 60 hours a month, and working members of
cooperatives.
- Employees, i.e. all persons employed on the last pay day or last
working day of the reference quarter. They include working directors
who are paid a salary, wage earners and salaried employees, apprentices,
trainees and workers on probation, piece workers and commission agents,
full-time and part-time workers, as well as seasonal and temporary
workers. They also include persons temporarily absent from work because
of paid vacation or holiday, sickness or accident, industrial dispute,
temporary lay off, etc.
Employees are distributed as follows:
- regular employees, of whom:
- full-time regular employees, i.e. those who normally work for 30
hours or more a week, or 120 hours or more a month,
- part-time regular employees, i.e. those who normally work for less
than 30 hours a week, or less than 120 hours a month;
Employees temporarily on short-time because of economic difficulties and
those absent from work because of sickness or leave, are classified
according to the hours they would normally work.
- Casual employees;
and for each category, by sex.
Earnings
Data are collected on the total gross wages and salaries paid
in cash to each category of employees (regular full-time, regular
part-time and casual employees) during the three months of the reference
quarter, before any deductions are made for employees' contributions,
deductions or taxes. They include all cash allowances (other than those
paid to meet business expenses), commissions, bonuses and payments for
overtime, cash in lieu of leave, gratuities, etc. Directors' fees and
refunds of pension contributions are excluded.
Compensation of employees
This is the total cost to the employer of employees' earnings.
It represents the sum of:
- gross wages and salaries, as defined above,
- employers' contributions to pension, provident and holiday funds and
medical aid societies,
- net cost to employers of rents for employees accommodation,
- net cost to employers of rations, meals, etc. provided,
- net cost to employers of other benefits provided to employees (e.g.
fuel, company car).
Data on compensation of employees are collected by employee category.
In addition, information is collected on the number of employees
accommodated free in premises owned by the employer.
Wage/salary rates
Not relevant.
Hours of work
Not relevant.
International recommendations
The concepts of earnings and compensation of employees, as defined
above, conform to the relevant international guidelines. However, the
published statistics known as earnings include all the components
of earnings, in cash and in kind, as well as employers' contributions to
pension and other funds. They are therefore closer to the definition of
compensation of employees than to that of earnings.
Classifications
Components of labour cost / compensation of employees
Not applied.
Industrial
Data on employment, earnings and compensation of employees are
classified according to the Zimbabwe Industrial Classification (ZIC)
which broadly follows the International Standard Industrial
Classification of all economic activities (ISIC), Rev.2, 1968. Data are
classified at the four-digit level of the ZIC.
Occupational
Not relevant.
Others
The survey data are classified by size of establishments (less than ten
employees and ten or more employees), according to
seven main urban areas and by employee category. Employment data are
classified by sex.
Sample size and design
Statistical unit
The reporting unit is the establishment, defined as the
smallest unit for which separate records are available concerning the
production of a reasonably homogeneous group of goods or services as
well as the materials, labour and physical resources (both direct and
indirect) used. An establishment is generally confined to a single
location, but on occasions it may spread over a number of nearby sites.
Survey universe / sample frame
This
consists of a list of establishments obtained from the Registrar of
Companies Office, and covers all registered establishments, enterprises
or firms in the formal sector. Firms are split into two categories
termed the A (establishments with ten or more employees) and
B (establishments
with less than ten employees) rolls.
The sample frame is updated every quarter by means of the quarterly
questionnaires sent to establishments, which provide information on
firms which have closed down. The Registrar of Companies provides the
Central Statistical Office with the name and address of all new firms
as they register.
Sample design
The survey consists of (i) a survey of all large firms (with ten or more
employees) in March, June and December of each year, and (ii) a complete
enumeration of all firms in the September quarter.
Field work
Data collection
For A-roll and B-roll establishments,
data are collected by means of a questionnaire which is sent out at the
end of each quarter. The responsibility of sending out and receiving
back the forms rests with the Despatch and Recovery section. Responses
are recorded as forms are returned. A first reminder is sent out 21
days after the day of despatch and a second reminder, 42 days after the
day of despatch. The response rate is continuously monitored. The
Despatch and Recovery section then forwards the forms to the Employment
section for editing, processing and data capture. The Employment
section records the history of every establishment for every quarter
responded to, on a form called a history sheet.
Data from the Central Government, the National Railways of Zimbabwe, the
Posts and Telecommunications Corporation and the City of Harare, are
collected by means of computer printouts which are sent to the CSO on a
monthly or quarterly basis.
Survey questionnaire
The QEI form consists of:
- a letter which provides information on the survey,
- a table designed to collect data on the number of persons engaged
(see under Concepts and definitions: Employment),
- a table designed to collect data on earnings of employees for the
quarter,
- a section where the firm can indicate whether a new branch has been
opened during the reference period, and its characteristics (name,
address, number of employees, responsible person),
- explanatory notes on terms and definitions.
Substitution of sampling units
Not relevant.
Data processing and editing
Data are processed on a personal computer using an
employment programme which includes error and consistency checks.
Genuine non-responses call for follow-ups by phone, or, where necessary,
a field officer is sent to do an on-the-spot probe. The figures of
employees and earnings of the previous and current quarters are compared
and percentage increases or decreases are calculated.
Additional sub-systems are run for specific purposes. Every quarter, a
History List and a History File are prepared. Every year in September,
a system produces wage distribution tables. Every three years, another
system processes age distribution data.
Types of estimates
- Total number of employees and total earnings (i.e. compensation of
employees),
- Average earnings (compensation of employees), per month and per
year.
Construction of indices
Not relevant.
Weighting of sample results
Not relevant.
Adjustments
Non-response
Where follow-up attempts fail to yield current figures, the data are
estimated from the previous quarter.
Other bias
After each September inquiry, the number of employees in the smaller
establishments is assumed to remain stable until the next full inquiry.
If necessary, adjustments are then made to that year's figures in the
light of the latest September results.
Use of benchmark data
Not relevant.
Seasonal variations
Data are not adjusted for seasonal variations.
Indicators of reliability of the estimates
Coverage of the sampling frame
Every effort is made to cover all registered establishments in the
formal sector by updating the list of establishments on a regular
basis.
Sampling error / sampling variance
Not computed.
Non-response rate
Usually minimal.
Non-sampling errors
Not relevant.
Conformity with other sources
There is no other source of data on employment and earnings.
Available series
Every quarter, two tables are produced:
- employees and earnings by industrial sector (totals), and
- employees and earnings in specified urban areas.
All the other tables are available upon request, from the Employment and
Education Section of the CSO.
History of the survey
The Quarterly Employment Inquiry started in 1975. Since then, it has
been conducted on a regular basis, without any major changes.
Documentation
Central Statistical Office: Quarterly Digest of Statistics
(quarterly, Harare); the survey results are published
about three months after the end of the reference quarter.
idem: Statistical Yearbook (annual, ibid.).
Confidentiality / Reliability criteria
The information is collected under the Census and Statistics Act
(Chapter 79). Details in respect of individual returns are strictly
confidential and will not be revealed to anyone outside the Central
Statistical Office without the specific consent of the respondent
concerned.
Other information
Data supplied to the ILO for publication
The following estimates are published in the Yearbook of Labour
Statistics:
- General level of employment (employees) and paid employment in
specific industries (Tables 3A, 3B, and 4 to 5B);
- Average monthly earnings of employees (including employers'
contributions) in non-agricultural activities and specific industries
(Tables 16 to 21).
The corresponding quarterly series of paid employment (employees) are
published in Tables 1, 2 and 3 of the Bulletin of Labour
Statistics.