Lesotho

1.Series

Title:

Job-seekers Statistics.

Starting year:

1996.

2.Agency making the initial registrations of unemployed persons

Name of the agency:

National Employment Services (NES).

Type of agency:

Public service under a national authority.

Name of the national authority:

Labour Department.

Location of the local offices making the registrations:

District Labour Offices in all districts of the country.

Type of services provided/administered by the agency:

  • Assisting job-seekers to find jobs;
  • Assisting job-seekers to establish their own business;
  • Assisting employers to find workers;
  • Vocational guidance;
  • Other: dissemination of employment related (labour market) information.

    Percentage of job-seekers seeking work through the agency:

    30%.

    3.The following information is registered about a person:

  • Name;
  • Sex;
  • Social security number (or similar identification number also used by other agencies);
  • Address of usual residence;
  • Date of birth;
  • Citizenship;
  • Educational/vocational attainment, with four categories distinguished. Links to ISCED have not been established;
  • Type of work (occupation) of past or present job with eight categories distinguished. Links to ISCO-88 have been established (major group level);
  • Type of work (occupation) of job sought, with eight categories distinguished. Links to ISCO-88 have been established (major group level);
  • Previous registrations with the agency/service.

    4.Criteria used for inclusion of a person in the registers (R) and/or the statistics of unemployed persons (S):

  • Seeking work (R);
  • Age (lower limit: 18 years; upper limit: 55 years) (R);
  • Citizenship (must be a Lesotho citizen) (R).

    5.Criteria used for exclusion of a person from the registers (R) and/or the statistics of unemployed persons (S):

  • Death (R);
  • Taking up residency abroad (R);
  • Commencement of a (new) job (R).

    6.Definition of unemployed persons used for the statistics

    Unemployed persons are defined as people who earn zero income.

    7.Updating of the registers

    The registers are updated daily.

    8.Unemployment rates

    Statistics from the registers are not used to obtain unemployment rates.

    9.Type of statistics of unemployed persons produced

    Series:

    Job-seekers statistics.

    Reference period:

    Quarter.

    Frequency of production:

    Weekly.

    Descriptive variables used:

  • Sex;
  • Age;
  • Educational level;
  • Occupation.

    Form of publication:

    Machine-readable form, on request.

    Title of the publication:

    Quarterly Reports.

    10.Methodological information about the statistics

    Form of release:

    In machine-readable form, on request.

    Agency responsible for the release:

    National Employment Services.

    11.Comparisons with unemployment statistics from other sources

    Comparisons have not been made with unemployment statistics from other sources.

    12.Major changes since the start of the statistics

    There have been no major changes in legislation, capacity of the agency and/or administrative procedures which had a significant influence on the statistics.