Paraguay

1.Title of the survey:

Household Survey - Labour Force (Encuesta de Hogares - Mano de Obra).

2.Organization responsible for the survey:

General Directorate of Statistics and Census, Ministry of Finance (Dirección General de Estadística y Censos (DGEC), Ministerio de Hacienda).

3.Coverage of the survey:

(a) Geographical:

The metropolitan area of Asunción, i.e., Asunción and the districts of Fernando de la Mora, Lambaré, Luque, Limpio, Mariano Roque Alonso, Nemby, San Antonio, San Lorenzo, Villa Elisa and the urban area of Villa Hayes.

(b) Persons covered:

The civilian population living in private households. Excluded is the population resident in collective households (hotels, hospitals, orphanages, barracks, convents, etc.), and members absent from their households for more than six months. Included are families forming an independent group but living in collective establishments, for example the directors of the centres, custodians and porters.

4.Periodicity of the survey:

The survey is annual.

5.Reference period:

The week prior to the interview.

6.Topics covered:

The survey provides information on employment, unemployment, underemployment, hours of work, wages and income, duration of unemployment, industry, occupation, status in employment, and level of education/qualifications.

7.Concepts and definitions:

(a) Employment:

"Employed persons are those aged 12 years and over who had a paid or unpaid part-time or full-time job during the reference week. Unpaid family workers are considered as employed provided they worked at least one-third of the normal working time in the reference period."

Also considered as employed are:

  1. persons with a job but temporarily absent from work because of illness or injury, vacation or annual leave, maternity or parental leave, educational leave, absence without leave, bad weather, labour-management dispute, mechanical breakdown or other reduction in economic activity;
  2. persons laid off for fewer than 30 days;
  3. persons without work and currently available for work who have made arrangements to start work within 30 days;
  4. full-time or part-time workers who looked for another job during the reference period;
  5. persons who did any work for pay or profit during the reference period, while being subject to compulsory schooling, or retired and receiving a pension;
  6. full-time or part-time students working full time or part time;
  7. paid and unpaid apprentices and trainees;
  8. family workers temporarily absent from their work;
  9. private domestic servants;
  10. members of producers' co-operatives;
  11. volunteer and career members of the armed forces.

Excluded from the employed and from the economically active population are persons only engaged in their own housework; persons doing unpaid voluntary community or social work; and conscripts.

(b) Underemployment:

Underemployed persons are those who worked for less than the normal number of hours (fewer than 30 hours a week) and want to work longer than they normally do, persons looking for another job, and persons who want to change their job.

(c) Unemployment:

"Unemployed persons are those aged 12 years and over who were not working during the reference week because they had lost their job and were looking for paid employment in the reference period, and persons who have never worked and are first-time jobseekers.

Considered as unemployed are:

  1. persons laid off for 30 days or longer;
  2. full-time or part-time students looking for full-time or part-time work;
  3. participants in employment promotion schemes;
  4. seasonal workers awaiting agricultural or other seasonal work, and share croppers.

"Looking for work" includes: having begun arrangements to work as a self-employed worker; consulting friends or relatives; direct application to an employer; answering or inserting advertisements in the press; contacting employment agencies, etc.

(d) Hours of work:

Inquiries are made to determine the usual hours of work and the hours actually worked in the reference week. In either case hours spent at the main occupation and hours spent on other activities are investigated separately.

(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:

Employed and unemployed persons are classified by industry, occupation, and status in employment. All persons aged 12 years and over are classified by level of education.

(a) Industry:

The classification comprises nine main groups, each of them being coded to three digits. It is convertible to the International Standard Industrial Classification of all Economic Activities (ISIC-1968).

(b) Occupation:

The classification comprises ten main groups, each of them being coded to three digits. It is convertible to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-1968).

(c) Status in employment:

The following groups are used:
  1. public sector employee,
  2. private sector employee,
  3. wage earner or day labourer,
  4. employer or owner,
  5. own-account worker,
  6. unpaid worker,
  7. domestic employee.

This classification is convertible to the International Classification of Status in Employment (ICSE).

(d) Level of education/qualifications:

The level of education is classified in the following categories:
  1. None;
  2. Primary (1 to 6 grades);
  3. Secondary (1 to 6 grades);
  4. University (1 to 6 grades).

This classification is convertible to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED-1976).

9.Sample size and design:

(a) The sample frame:

It is based on the enumeration areas (EAs), consisting of the territorial area allotted to an interviewer in the 1982 Population Census. For each EA there is a register filled in by the interviewer on census day and showing, inter alia, the total number of dwellings occupied and the number of persons occupying each dwelling.

At each round of the survey, only the selected EAs are updated by means of a rapid inventory of dwellings, made by the interviewers.

(b) The sample:

The survey comprises two major strata: the City of Asunción and the "rest of the metropolitan area" formed by the 10 districts mentioned above (see Coverage of the survey - Geographical).

The survey uses a two-stage and probabilistic sample design. In the first stage the enumeration areas were selected systematically, with a random starting point and probability approximately proportional to the size of the occupied dwellings recorded in the census. In the second stage five dwellings were selected in each EA with equal probability. The ultimate sampling unit is the private household living in the dwelling. The sampling fraction is 0.6 per cent and the sample size is 500 private households for each stratum; that is, 1,000 households (or 5,000 persons) in the whole of the geographical area of the survey.

(c) Rotation:

Rotation is not applied.

10.Field work:

(a) Data collection:

The field work is done by a permanent survey organisation, whose interviewers and supervisors are staff members of the DGEC. Interviews are carried out by visiting the selected households, attaching great importance to the information requested being given by the persons concerned; if the person is absent, the adult person in charge of the household is questioned and gives the required information.

Interviews were spread evenly throughout the quarter in 1983, 1984, 1986 and 1987, and carried out within two months in 1985. The results obtained refer to the average week of each period. The following were the months of data collection:

1983:
September, October, November;
1984:
August, September, October;
1985:
November, December;
1986:
June, July, August;
1987:
July, August, September.

(b) Substitution of ultimate sampling units:

The dwellings/households not interviewed by reason of absence or non-response are replaced. Any unit that cannot be measured is replaced by another unit of equivalent characteristics from the same EA.

11.Quality controls:

The field work is checked by the supervisors. This is done in two ways: either the supervisor is present at the interview and notes whether it is carried out according to instructions, or by reinterview. In the latter case the dwelling is revisited and another form filled in, this time by the supervisor. The purpose of the reinterview is to ascertain how far the interviewers are efficient; it is applied to 10 per cent of the households interviewed. When the data are compiled they are examined for consistency.

12.Weighting the sample:

The sample is expanded by using independent estimates of the population living in private households in each stratum (Asunción and the "remainder"). The total Metropolitan Area is obtained by adding both strata. The procedure used in making the estimates is as follows:

The 1972 and 1982 census figures were adjusted by adding to each census the percentage, estimated by post-census evaluation surveys, to have been omitted from it. Between-census growth rates were calculated from the corrected censuses, and used to estimate the population of each of the strata from 1983 to date, taking as the initial population the corrected figures of the 1982 census. A constant proportion of population in collective households, calculated from the data observed in the last census, was subtracted from the estimated population for each year. The sample was expanded in each stratum by using a single factor of expansion in each stratum.

13.Sampling errors:

The information is not available.

14.Adjustments:

(a) Population not covered:

No adjustment is made.

(b) Under/overcoverage:

No adjustment is made.

(c) Non-response:

No adjustment is made.

15.Seasonal adjustment:

No adjustment is made for seasonal variations.

16.Non-sampling errors:

From the distribution of persons interviewed in the original interview (OI) and repeated interview (RI), an index of net change is calculated for each category (total number of persons interviewed, men and women interviewed, and category of activity). This index indicates the nature and extent of the inaccuracy of the survey estimate, and reflects the size of the net variations of response regarding the number of individuals classified in the corresponding category in the RI.

17.History of the survey:

The Household Survey programme began in 1976 and from then until 1982 the area it covered was "Asunción and certain areas of influence", i.e., Asunción plus the districts of Fernando de la Mora and Lambaré and the urban areas of Luque and San Lorenzo. In 1979 changes were made in the questionnaire.

In 1983 the municipality of the capital city established the Metropolitan Area of Asunción, including the above-mentioned districts (see Coverage of the survey). Since 1983 the Survey has covered the geographical area known as the "Metropolitan Area of Asunción". The questionnaire was again changed in 1983.

18.Documentation:

For the results of the survey and methodological information, see:

Dirección General de Estadística y Censos: "Encuesta de Hogares - Mano de obra, 1976" (Asunción, 1977).

idem: "Encuesta de Hogares - Mano de obra, 1983-1986" (ibid., 1987).

idem: "Encuesta de Hogares - Mano de obra, 1987" (ibid., 1988).

The results for the years 1977 to 1982 were not published. They were kept in the DGEC archives and are open for consultation by interested persons.

The results of the 1988 survey are also available in the form of tables.