Algeria

1.Title of the survey:

Labour Force and Demographic Survey (Enquête main-d'oeuvre et démographie - MOD).

2.Organization responsible for the survey:

National Office of Statistics (Office national des statistiques - ONS).

3.Coverage of the survey:

(a) Geographical:

(b) Persons covered:

Excluded are nomadic groups (difficult to locate); populations counted separately, i.e. inmates of hospitals, asylums, convalescent or nursing homes, etc. for more than six months, detainees in prisons and persons living in old people's homes or social assistance institutions (these persons are not concerned with problems of employment); and, certain years, one-person households (difficult to trace in their homes or lodgings).

4.Periodicity of the survey:

The survey is annual and is carried out, in principle, around the month of March (see also under History of the survey).

5.Reference period:

The week prior to the interview, or the month preceding it.

6.Topics covered:

The survey provides information on employment, unemployment, duration of employment, duration of unemployment, occasional workers, industry, occupation, status in employment and level of education/qualifications.

7.Concepts and definitions:

(a) Employment:

"The concept of occupation implies a social status (persons socially recognised as being employed) rather than the actual concept of work (production of goods or services). Persons engaged in the production of goods or services which are not channelled through the (classic or administered) market are not counted as employed; this is especially the case with women working at home. Since this concept is somewhat restrictive, especially for women, there is a definition covering women working at home with part-time employment: this applies to women or girls who help in a family business or farm; they have a secondary occupation apart from housework, such as work in the fields or farmyard (animal husbandry, milking, etc.), or craftwork (weaving, pottery, etc.) which supplements family earnings."

The minimum legal age for starting work is 16 years; but a number of young persons below this age limit are employed, especially as family workers. Retirement age is 60 years, or earlier for certain types of worker, while self-employed workers for whom there is no retirement pension scheme continue to work beyond the age of 60.

Also considered as employed are the following categories:

1. persons with a job but temporarily absent due to illness or injury; vacation or annual leave; maternity or paternity leave; absence without leave; labour-management dispute; mechanical breakdown; or other reduction in economic activity.
2. persons on temporary or indefinite lay-off without pay;
3. full- and part-time workers seeking other work;
4. persons who performed some work for pay or profit during the reference period, while being subject to compulsory schooling, or retired and receiving a pension;
5. paid and unpaid apprentices and trainees;
6. full- or part-time students working full- or part-time;
7. paid and unpaid family workers, even if temporarily absent from work;
8. private domestic servants;
9. members of producers' co-operatives;
10. members of the armed forces (volunteers and career) and persons doing civilian service equivalent to military service.

Excluded from the employed are:

1. persons doing unpaid community or social work;
2. women and girls over the age of 14 years engaged exclusively in housework in their own homes and not seeking other work;
3. persons doing compulsory military service (conscripts), who are enumerated separately.

(b) Underemployment:

Underemployment is touched upon by the question relating to the number of days worked by persons in non-permanent employment (during the year preceding the survey). However, the number of working days (or hours) in the case of the self-employed, especially in farming, is not always available, as many of these workers have secondary activities.

(c) Unemployment:

The relevant age limits are 16 to 60 years.

According to the second criterion (ability) used to determine unemployment, disabled persons are excluded from the economically active population. (However, if they actually work, they are considered as employed.)

The third criterion used to determine unemployment demands that the persons in question should have actively sought employment by registering with an employment exchange, applying directly to private or public establishments, etc.

The STR population is subdivided into two categories:

1. STR1 - these are persons of working age who are without work at the time of the survey, but are seeking employment and have previous work experience;
2. STR2 - these are persons of working age who are without work at the time of the survey, have no previous work experience and are seeking work.

Seasonal workers awaiting seasonal (agricultural or other) work are included among the unemployed, provided they are actively seeking employment.

Excluded from the definition of the unemployed and classified as economically inactive are all persons between the ages of 16 to 60 years who are fit for work but have not claimed to be actively seeking employment; full or part-time students seeking full- or part-time work; and persons taking part in employment promotion schemes.

(d) Hours of work:

(e) Informal sector:

(f) Usual activity:

8.Classifications used:

Only employed persons are classified by industry, occupation and status in employment. All persons covered by the survey are classified by level of education.

(a) Industry:

Two levels of aggregation are used: one level with 92 entries, the summary Nomenclature of Economic Activities (NAPR), and one with 22 entries, the Nomenclature of Economic Sectors (NSA).

The NAP cannot be linked to the International Standard Industrial Classification of all Economic Activities (ISIC-1968) at detailed level, but links can be established at aggregate level (NSA).

(b) Occupation:

(c) Status in employment:

1. Employer,
2. Self-employed (own account worker),
3. Employee: employees are subdivided as follows:
   1. Co-operator,
   2. Permanent employee,
   3. Seasonal employee,
   4. Apprentice,
4. Family worker.

(d) Level of education/qualifications:

1. Without education,
2. Literate,
3. Primary education,
4. Intermediate,
5. Secondary,
6. Higher (two levels).

The classification of diplomas was based on the results of the 1977 RGPH (General Population and Housing Census) (revised in 1987), where all diplomas were registered. This catalogue is in two subdivisions:

1. a subdivision of diplomas in two major groups corresponding approximately to aggregate entries of the nomenclature of economic sectors;
2. within each group, diplomas are divided according to levels (06).

9.Sample size and design:

(a) The sample frame:

Excluded are nomadic households (difficult to locate), the population counted separately (not concerned with employment problems), one-person households, difficult to trace in their homes or lodgings (these were excluded from the 1982 and 1983 surveys, but covered by subsequent surveys), and the far South of the country (exorbitant cost for little return as regards representativeness).

Before each survey, teams of cartographers visit each of the sample municipalities and update the cartographic frame, by including new districts and/or new dwelling units in existing districts.

(b) The sample:

Stratification is based on national development work. The first stratification criterion is the economic area and five strata are formed (relatively industrialised urban areas; inland valleys, mountain-foot regions (benchland) and coastal plains; mountainous regions; plateaux; desert steppe, the Atlas mountains and the Sahara). The second criterion relates to the level of urbanisation and again five strata are used (Greater Algiers; communes with over 70,000 inhabitants and an urbanisation level of more than 50 per cent; communes with fewer than 70,000 inhabitants and an urbanisation level of more than 50 per cent; communes with an urbanisation level of between 25 and 50 per cent; and communes with an urbanisation level of less than 25 per cent).

The second stage consists of a systematic selection of districts, and the third stage is a systematic selection of dwellings, the sampling unit being the entire household.

In order to distribute the sample among the economic areas and degrees of urbanisation, the control variable chosen is the average number of employed persons per household according to the most recent general population census.

The sample size was approximately 10,000 households in 1982 and 1983, 12,000 households in 1984, and 13,000 in 1985.

The 1989 MOD survey covers 16,000 households per round (June and December).

(c) Rotation:

10.Field work:

(a) Data collection:

The 1989 survey was carried out in two rounds (June and December).

(b) Substitution of ultimate sampling units:

11.Quality controls:

At the data collection stage, each group of three interviewers is supervised by a permanent controller, whose duties consist of checking all the questionnaires at the end of each day, seeing that all the sample households have been surveyed, facilitating contacts between the interviewers and the households (sometimes by organising meetings with the head of the household in person, if the wife is unable to provide the proper information), and carrying out control interviews.

Coding is generally done by the survey personnel, either in the field (using codes with only a few entries), or in the office (using codes requiring a nomenclature).

Once the coding operation is completed, the information is entered on computer and subjected to a certain number of tests for validity and coherence.

12.Weighting the sample:

The adjustment principle consists in applying to each sampling stratum an expansion coefficient which is the inverse of the sampling fraction in the stratum under consideration.

13.Sampling errors:

Sampling errors are calculated for internal needs, but are not published.

14.Adjustments:

(a) Population not covered:

(b) Under/overcoverage:

(c) Non-response:

15.Seasonal adjustment:

No adjustments is made for seasonal variations.

It should be noted that activities which fluctuate considerably according to season (agriculture, public works and building, food production) are not well covered in one-phase surveys.

16.Non-sampling errors:

The main sources of errors, arising from various factors, are as follows:

1. Lack of a permanent team of interviewers and high rate of illiteracy among the female population are factors which can have an adverse effect on the information collected on employment;
2. The training of the interviewers is in French, as are the questionnaire and the instruction manual, whereas the interview in the field must be carried on in the vernacular. This results in a vague and "woolly" interpretation of the concepts used;
3. It is difficult to collect accurate information on industry or economic activity, as the respondent usually just gives the name of his business, which might well involve a number of activities;
4. Information on education/qualifications or diploma, and vocational and professional training, is difficult to assess, as neither the interviewers nor the respondents have a clear appreciation of their worth.

17.History of the survey:

In 1982 the National Office of Statistics introduced a system of annual surveys using a sample varying between 10,000 and 13,000 households. Its main work is the Labour Force and Demographic Survey (MOD), the essential objective of which is to determine employment and unemployment levels.

The MOD survey was conducted annually from 1982 to 1985 (in March 1982, January 1983 and 1984, and April 1985). It was temporarily suspended from 1986 to 1988 because of the preparation and conduct of the General Population and Housing Census (RGPH) in 1986/87, and subsequently by the preparations for the survey on household consumption expenditure which commenced in 1988.

The 1982 and 1983 surveys did not cover one-person households (owing to the difficulty of tracing them in their homes or lodgings). This type of household was subsequently included in the scope of the survey. The far South of the country was excluded in 1984 and 1985.

For 1988, the information on employment was taken from the survey on consumption expenditures, which contained a component on this topic.

In 1989, the MOD survey is based on a larger sample and is conducted in two phases (one in June and the other in December).

18.Documentation:

Office national des statistiques: "Les Collections de statistiques" (Statistics Collections) (quarterly) (Algiers).

See in particular:

idem: "Situation de l'emploi, 1986" (Employment situation in 1986) (Algiers, fourth quarter 1988).

The results of the survey, including results which are not published, are also available on diskette and magnetic tape.