Israel

1.Title of the survey:

Labour Force Survey (LFS).

2.Organization responsible for the survey:

Central Bureau of Statistics.

3.Coverage of the survey:

(a) Geographical:

The whole country.

(b) Persons covered:

The permanent (de jure) population aged 15 years and over, including the Jewish residents living in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Area, potential immigrants and permanent residents living abroad for a period of less than one year, the residents of East Jerusalem (since 1968) and the non-Jewish population of the Golan subdistrict (since 1982).

The survey excludes tourists and temporary residents unless they have been living in Israel continuously for more than a year, and members of the armed forces.

4.Periodicity of the survey:

The LFS is quarterly since 1958.

5.Reference period:

The week ending on the Saturday preceding the enumerator's visit (known as the determinant week).

6.Topics covered:

The LFS provides information on employment, unemployment, hours of work, duration of employment and unemployment, occasional workers, industry, occupation, status in employment, level of education and usual activity. In addition, a separate survey on income is conducted and published annually.

7.Concepts and definitions:

(a) Employment:

The employed are " all persons who had worked at least one hour during the determinant week, at any type of work, for pay, profit, or other remuneration; all workers in qibbuzim (whether in services or any other branch); family members who had worked without pay 15 hours or more a week; persons in institutions who had worked 15 hours or more a week; and persons who were temporarily absent from their usual work and did not seek other work. The employed group consists of three subgroups:
  1. full-time workers: all persons who worked 35 hours or more during the determinant week;
  2. part-time workers: all persons who worked from one to 34 hours during the determinant week;
  3. temporarily absent from work during the determinant week due to illness, vacation, army reserve duty, labour dispute, inclement weather, temporary disruption of work (up to 30 days), or other reason."

Also included in the employed are:

  1. persons without a job and currently available for work who have made arrangements to start a new job within 30 days;
  2. full- and part-time workers seeking other work during the determinant week;
  3. full- and part-time students working full- or part-time.
  4. persons who performed some work during the determinant week, while being subject to compulsory schooling; or retired and receiving a pension; or registered as jobseekers and at an employment office or receiving unemployment benefits;
  5. paid or unpaid apprentices and trainees;
  6. participants in employment promotion schemes;
  7. paid and unpaid family workers, provided the latter have worked at least 15 hours during the determinant week, and including those who were temporarily absent from work;
  8. private domestic servants;
  9. members of producers' co-operatives.

Excluded from the employed and considered as out of the labour force are: persons engaged in own housework; persons who worked voluntarily without remuneration; persons on temporary or indefinite lay-off without remuneration; members of the armed forces; students; persons living on pensions, etc., who did not work even one hour during the determinant week.

(b) Underemployment:

This topic is not covered by the survey.

(c) Unemployment:

The unemployed are "all persons who did not work at all (even for one hour) during the determinant week and who had actively sought work during that week by registering at the Labour Exchange of the Employment Service or any other employment office, by personal or written application, by attempting to establish an independent business, etc. Workers who were temporarily absent from their work and had actively sought other work are considered as unemployed. The unemployed group consists of two subgroups: those who worked in Israel in the 12 months preceding the determinant week; and those who did not work in Israel in the 12 months preceding the determinant week."

(d) Hours of work:

They relate to the total number of hours actually worked during the determinant week, and include overtime in the same place of work or in other places of work, preparation hours of teachers and artists, waiting hours (e.g. a driver or porter waiting for work), as well as working hours of non-paid family members in the family business or farm (if the person worked 15 hours or more, on average, per week).

(e) Informal sector:

This topic is not covered by the survey.

(f) Usual activity:

This topic is not covered by the survey.

8.Classifications used:

Both employed and unemployed persons who have worked in the previous 12 months are classified by industry, occupation and status in employment. All persons covered by the survey are classified by level of education.

(a) Industry:

The national classification is the 1970 Standard Industrial Classification of all Economic Activities. Coding is done to 337 groups. This classification is linked to the International Standard Industrial Classification of all Economic Activities (ISIC-1968) at the 2-digit level.

Persons employed in qibbuzim are classified according to the branch in which they are active.

(b) Occupation:

The national classification is the 1972 Standard Classification of Occupations. Coding is done to 456 groups. The link with the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-1968) is established at the 2-digit level.

(c) Status in employment:

Data are classified according to the following status groups:
  1. employees,
  2. employers, including partners in a business employing others,
  3. self-employed,
  4. members of co-operatives, including members of collective moshavim,
  5. members of qibbuzim, including qibbuz members, candidates for membership, relatives of members who live in qibbuzim and training groups,
  6. unpaid family members.

(d) Level of education/qualifications:

The classification comprises the following levels:
  1. Primary school/Heder/Kutab,
  2. Intermediate school (between primary and secondary),
  3. Vocational or agricultural secondary school,
  4. Secondary school,
  5. Yeshiva (not including Yeshiva secondary school)/Madrassa Dinniyah,
  6. Teacher training college,
  7. Post-secondary school for practical engineers and technicians,
  8. Other post-secondary school (eg. for registered nurses, etc.),
  9. Academic institution, such as Technion, University,
  10. Others.

9.Sample size and design:

(a) The sample frame:

Two types of frames are used: the main frames used for localities, from which most of the sample is taken, and special frames for sampling specific population groups.

The main frame for localities is obtained from the Arnona tax registers of local councils, which exist for all urban localities and for some of the villages. The degree of updating of the registers varies from one local authority to another: in some local authorities, the builder registers the dwelling upon completion of construction, whereas in others the dwelling is registered only when the residents take possession of it. In general, files of all the dwellings in the localities in the sample are received once a year at some date after the end of the fiscal year on March 31, and they are updated for March 31 or for the date on which they are copied for the Bureau.

The other locality frames consist of lists of households in villages; lists of farms, dwellings or households in moshavim; lists of all persons aged 15 years and over who reside permanently in qibbuzim. For East Jerusalem, the sample frame consists of the list of enumeration districts of the 1983 Census, which is updated in those districts which have previously been sampled according to the count of households in the area. As regards new buildings in urban localities, a list of these buildings for the localities in the sample is prepared every six months.

The special frames are the following:

(i) The list of student dormitories and the list of absorption centers. From each of these two lists a separate sample is drawn each year.

(ii) Two frames were obtained from the 1983 Census of Population and Housing: a list of residents and households within institutions (not including student dormitories); and a list of Bedouin households in the South living outside of any given locality. A sample was drawn from each of these frames and data from the Census are used in each sample. These data serve as a basis for estimating the appropriate populations in each quarter.

(b) The sample:

The main sampling is done in two stages. In the first stage, localities are sampled from the localities file of the Bureau. In the second stage, dwellings (or households) are sampled from the frames of those localities included in the sample. The sampling is done in such a way that the final probability of being included in the sample is the same for every household in the population (about 0.8 per cent).

Sampling of localities: i) Jewish localities with 4,000 households (about 14,000 persons) or more, as well as Nazareth, are automatically included in every yearly sample; ii) Jewish localities with 2,000 to 4,000 households (about 7,000 to 14,000 persons) as well as non-Jewish localities of more than 1,000 households (about 6,000 persons) are included once every two years in the yearly sample, but are investigated on a regular quarterly basis owing to the rotation pattern (see under Rotation below). Localities are divided into groups, in accordance with the division into urban and rural localities which existed at the time of the 1983 Census; localities with 2,000 or more persons at that time are considered as urban localities and all others as rural. Groups of smaller localities (except those mentioned under (i) and (ii) above) are sampled in strata, and within each stratum, a sample of localities is drawn, with probability proportional to the number of persons aged 15 years and over in that locality.

In localities from which a sample is drawn every year, the sample constitutes about 0.8 per cent of the dwellings. In localities where a sample is drawn once every two years, it constitutes about 1.6 per cent of the dwellings. In other urban localities, the sample is about 40 dwellings. In urban localities, the sample is usually divided into four panels, but in some of the non-Jewish urban localities it is divided into two panels. For non-urban localities, the sample is about 10 households (in qibbuzim, about 12 families) and the entire sample belongs to one panel.

Dwellings in urban localities (excluding East Jerusalem) and households in villages and moshavim are selected by systematic random sampling. In villages and moshavim included in the sample, two samples of households are drawn, the first for investigations Nos. 1 and 2, and the second, a year later, for investigations Nos. 3 and 4. In qibbuzim, a systematic random sample of persons is taken from the list of persons aged 15 years and over in the qibbuz, each sampled person who is not head of household is removed from the sample, and if the person is a head of household, then the entire family is included in the sample. The sample in the qibbuz is drawn anew for each of the four investigations.

In East Jerusalem, the sampling includes the following stages: Enumeration districts are sampled from the 1983 Census frame, after they have been updated; they are mapped and divided into sections, and one section is sampled in each district; all households in the sampled section are interviewed (12 households).

Sampling of new buildings: in urban localities, a sample is drawn every six months from a frame of new buildings made up for panels sampled in previous years which are to be investigated again.

In student dormitories and absorption centers, a sample of institutions is drawn once a year with probability proportional to the size of these institutions. Within the selected institutions, either dwellings or individuals are sampled.

In other institutions, a permanent sample of individuals was selected on the basis of the 1983 Census, each unit having a sampling probability of 1/50.

As regards Bedouins in the South, a permanent sample of 1/25 was drawn from the individuals in this population group from the 1983 Census.

In each quarterly survey, approximately 12,000 households are sampled. Since some households are interviewed twice a year, the result is that some 22,000 different households are interviewed every year.

(c) Rotation:

The sample is drawn once a year during the months of June-August and is divided into four panels. The four panels are first investigated during four successive quarters, one panel per quarter, beginning with the fourth quarter of the calendar year in which the sample is drawn.

Each panel is investigated four times as follows: i) two investigations during two consecutive quarters (investigations Nos. 1 and 2); ii) after a break of two quarters there are two additional investigations during two consecutive quarters (investigations Nos. 3 and 4).

The sample in each quarter is composed of four panels from two or three sampling years. In urban localities, the dwellings sampled for a particular panel are supposed to be investigated on all four occasions. In other localities the sample of dwellings (households) in a panel is not the same for all four investigations.

In qibbuzim a new sample is drawn in each investigation period. In villages and moshavim two samples are drawn: one for investigations Nos. 1 and 2 and the other for investigations Nos. 3 and 4.

10.Field work:

(a) Data collection:

The enumeration is conducted by trained enumerators of the Central Bureau of Statistics who visit every dwelling in the sample. Since January 1960, the enumeration is carried out continuously each and every week of the entire quarterly survey. Each week, about 1/13 of the households included in the survey are interviewed. The data obtained for any period (quarter, year, etc.) reflect the situation during an "average" week in this period.

Dwellings not used for residential purposes are considered zero cases. In residential dwellings, the enumerators interview one of the household members from whom they receive information about all members of the household. If nobody is at home on the first visit, the enumerator usually makes two further visits. If there is still no one at home, special questionnaires are usually left to be filled in and returned by post. For the second and third investigations, efforts are made to conduct telephone enumerations.

(b) Substitution of ultimate sampling units:

Dwellings which cannot be reached or where there is total non-response are not replaced.

11.Quality controls:

The collected material is checked, completed, edited, coded, punched and undergoes logic editing before the tables are compiled.

12.Weighting the sample:

In order to expand the sample data to estimates for the population as a whole, data obtained from the LFS are distributed into "inflating groups" defined by age group, sex, type of locality and geographical area (district and subdistrict). There are two sets of inflation coefficients; one for the regular population (including absorption centers and student dormitories), and the other for institutions. They are obtained as follows:

  1. Population estimates are calculated for each inflating group: each quarter, the Demography Section provides data by age and sex for each population group separately (Jews and non-Jews). These data are multiplied by the percentage of type of locality and geographic area within age and sex obtained from the same section once a year and these percentages are adjusted for trend by a correction factor.
  2. Population estimates are calculated for institutions and their derived inflating factors, based on the assumption that the percentage of the institutionalised population in the inflating groups did not change since the time of the Census.
  3. The estimate of the size of the regular population in the inflating groups is obtained by subtracting the institution population size from the regular population size in the inflating group.
  4. The inflating coefficients are obtained by dividing the population estimate which was obtained (from the middle of the quarter to which the survey relates) in the inflating group by the number of cases in the quarterly sample for that inflating group.

Quarterly estimates are obtained by multiplying each data by its inflating coefficient. Annual estimates are arithmetic averages of the four quarterly estimates.

13.Sampling errors:

Standard error of estimates
(1987 Annual average)
TotalMalesFemales
Employment (size of est.) 1,404,000861,000543,000
Standard error 6,2404,2504,300
Unemployment (size of est.) 90,00048,00042,000
Standard error 2,1701,5801,490

14.Adjustments:

(a) Population not covered:

The coverage of the frame is almost complete. Non-coverage only exists in the following two cases: i) of the population living outside the given localities, only the Bedouins living in the South are represented; ii) in the registers used for localities frames, there is a degree of delay in the updating of new dwellings and occasionally empty dwellings are not registered.

Persons living outside any locality who are not represented in the sample are represented in the estimates as follows:

  1. Jews: for the purposes of calculating the inflating coefficients, the estimate of the population in the villages includes persons living outside the locality;
  2. Non-Jews, excluding Bedouins in the South: the estimate is calculated in a manner similar to that for Jews.

(b) Under/overcoverage:

It is accounted for in the weighting method.

(c) Non-response:

The non-response rate varies between 13 and 15 per cent. Non-response is accounted for in the weighting method.

15.Seasonal adjustment:

Some of the survey results are adjusted for seasonal variations using the X-11 ARIMA method. These are estimates of the economically active population, the employed, unemployed, full-time and part-time workers and employed persons temporarily absent from work.

16.Non-sampling errors:

Not available.

17.History of the survey:

The Central Bureau of Statistics has carried out Labour Force Surveys since 1954. During the years 1954-1956, the survey was annual and the enumeration was carried out during one week each year. Two surveys were conducted in 1957. In 1958 and 1959 the survey became quarterly, the enumeration taking place one week each quarter. As from January 1960, the enumeration is carried out continuously each and every week for the entire three months of the survey.

The survey questionnaire was altered in 1966 and 1978. Throughout 1978 two questionnaires were used: the old questionnaire and a new enlarged, more comprehensive questionnaire which extended the coverage of the topics covered by the survey, and provided in particular additional information on the unemployed and average working hours per week.

In 1973 and 1985, the estimates were revised on the basis of the results of the 1972 and 1983 Population Census, respectively.

Up to the end of 1973, each of the quarterly labour force surveys covered about 6,000 households within Israel's geographical boundaries, including residents staying abroad less than one year at the time of the survey. As of January 1974, the sample has been increased to about 12,000 households. As of 1968, the data include East Jerusalem. As of 1982, the survey population includes the non-Jewish residents of the Golan subdistrict.

Following the 1983 Census of Population and Housing, the following main changes were introduced in the Labour Force Survey:

  1. Change in the definition of the population: since 1985, the LFS sample relates to the civilian labour force aged 15 years and over, instead of 14 years and over as in the population estimates based on the 1972 Census. This resulted in 1983 in a decrease of the working age population by 80,000 persons, of whom most were not in the civilian labour force;
  2. Changes in the age structure of the population estimates, which resulted in lower estimates of those persons aged 15 to 34 and higher estimates for those aged 35 and over;
  3. changes in the classification of type of locality;
  4. changes in the inflating groups;
  5. changes in the inflation method: the sample is now inflated quarterly during each year separately for the population residing in institutions and for that not residing in institutions, in order to take into account the changes and seasonal movements of the institutionalised population;
  6. Update of the population residing in institutions and Bedouins in the South, which resulted in the removal of two sub-populations from the current investigations: i) population of immigrant shelters and absorption centers are no longer included in the population residing in institutions; ii) the Bedouins in the South who live in four Bedouin localities (Rahat, Keseifa, 'Aro'Er and Tel Sheva) are no longer included in the Bedouin population of the South, but investigated in the corresponding localities.

18.Documentation:

Central Bureau of Statistics: "Monthly Bulletin of Statistics" (Jerusalem). Quarterly results are published about three months after the end of each quarter.

idem: "Supplement to the Monthly Bulletin of Statistics", (quarterly) (ibid.). Volume XL, No.5 of May 1989 contains the results of the 1988 Labour Force Surveys as well as methodological information.

idem: "The Labour Force Surveys, 1986" (ibid., 1988).

idem: "The Labour Force Surveys, 1987" (in preparation in 1989).

A detailed explanation of the previous methods employed in the LFS and the changes that were introduced as a result of the 1983 Census of Population and Housing can be found in "The Labour Force Surveys, 1985", No. 801.

Non-published results can be made available upon request, and tabulations are available in machine readable form.