Armenia

1.Title of the survey:

Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS).

2.Organization responsible for the survey:

The Department of Statistics of the Republic of Armenia (DSRA).

3.Coverage of the survey:

(a) Geographical:

Surveys conducted in November 1996 and December 1997 covered only the urban areas. Beginning 1999, it covers both urban and rural areas.

(b) Persons covered:

Men aged 16-60 and women aged 16-55 years old present in the household at the moment of the interview. As from the 1997 round, all the population aged 16 years and above.

Excluded are:

  1. students living in hostels and schoolchildren living in boarding schools;
  2. inmates of penal and mental institutions;
  3. military personnel (conscripts and career) living in barracks.

4.Periodicity of the survey:

The survey, which was conducted annually in 1996 and 1997, has become biannual since 1999.

5.Reference period:

The calendar week.

6.Topics covered:

The survey provides information on the following topics: employment (main and secondary), unemployment, underemployment, duration of unemployment, reasons for not being employed, occasional workers, industry, occupation, status in employment and level of education.

7.Concepts and definitions:

(a) Employment:

Employed persons are:
  1. all persons who, during the reference week, did any work at all as paid employees, in their own business, profession, or on their own farm as well as persons who worked as unpaid family workers in an enterprise operated by a family member; and
  2. all those who were not working but who had jobs or businesses from which they were temporarily absent because of illness, bad weather, vacation, labour-management disputes, or personal reasons, whether they were paid for the time off or were seeking other jobs.
Included in the totals are:
  1. full- and part-time workers seeking other work during the reference period;
  2. full- and part-time students working full- or part-time;
  3. persons who performed some work during the reference week while being either retired and receiving a pension; or were registered as job seekers at an employment office or receiving unemployment benefits (beginning the 1997 round);
  4. paid and unpaid family workers;
  5. members of producers' co-operatives.

(b) Underemployment:

(c) Unemployment:

Unemployed persons are all civilians who had no employment during the reference week, were available for work, except for temporary illness, and who had made specific steps to find employment.

Included in the unemployed are full- and part-time students seeking full- or part-time employment, provided they are currently available for work (if they are seeking work for some future date, such as for the summer months, they are considered inactive); as well as persons who found a job and made arrangements to start a new job on a date subsequent to the reference period.

(d) Hours of work:

(e) Informal sector:

(f) Usual activity:

8.Classifications used:

(a) Industry:

(b) Occupation:

(c) Status in employment:

(d) Level of education/qualifications:

9.Sample size and design:

(a) The sample frame:

The HLFS sample was built up on the basis of address lists which were used as a sample frame for the Household Family Budget Survey.

(b) The sample:

The sample is based on a two-stage stratified random sampling design. At the first stage administrative regions are divided into strata on the basis of enumeration districts. At the second stage the ultimate sampling units/households are selected proportional to their size. In 1996, the sample size was about 1,500 households in urban areas which means that 0.3 per cent of all the households were interviewed. Beginning November 1999, the sample size is 1,200 households located in both urban and rural areas, which represent 0.1 per cent of all the households listed in Armenia.

(c) Rotation:

The rotation pattern has not been established yet.

10.Field work:

(a) Data collection:

(b) Substitution of ultimate sampling units:

11.Quality controls:

12.Weighting the sample:

13.Sampling errors:

14.Adjustments:

(a) Population not covered:

(b) Under/overcoverage:

(c) Non-response:

15.Seasonal adjustment:

16.Non-sampling errors:

17.History of the survey:

18.Documentation:

Results of the HLFS will be published by the Department of Statistics of the Republic of Armenia in a special information bulletin and in the next issue of the Statistical Yearbook of the Armenian Republic.