Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) will roll out an updated questionnaire for the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) data collection in Quarter 3, aligning it with the latest international standards. Since its inception, the QLFS has served as a crucial instrument for understanding the South African labour market. Stats SA has diligently revised its questionnaire to keep pace with the dynamic nature of labour statistics and the evolving needs of stakeholders.

Since 2013, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has adopted three resolutions from the International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS). These resolutions are designed to enhance the quality and relevance of labour statistics across member countries. In response to these international guidelines, Stats SA has engaged in comprehensive testing and conducted pilot studies to ensure the upcoming survey modifications maintain the highest standards of accuracy and reliability.

The revised QLFS questionnaire underwent a series of tests in 2024 to ensure that it continues to provide key labour market indicators and enables the production of statistics aligned to the latest labour statistics resolutions.

The impact of using each standard, on South Africa’s labour statistics:

• 19th ICLS Resolution on Statistics of Work, Employment, and Labour Underutilization
  • Given that Stats SA has already excluded own-use production from its employment definition, substantial changes in labour market indicators related to labour underutilization are unlikely.
  • The use of concepts of “Economically active population” and “Not economically active population” are no longer to be used. Instead “Labour Force” and “Out of the labour force” concepts are recommended.
  • No longer use maximum age of the working age population, although age ranges will still be used.
  • Unemployment is widely used as a headline measure of labour market performance, and it highlights the potential mismatches between labour supply (people) and available demand (jobs) at a given point in time.
    • However, unemployment is not sufficient to capture all groups of people with sufficient access to employment opportunities.
    • Therefore, additional indicators are recommended and needed and hence labour underutilisation was introduced by the ICLS.
  • Additional questions to identify employment comprehensively have been added to the questionnaire. These will classify the main intended destination of production for agriculture and fishing for those who indicated that they did some work in this sector.

• 20th ICLS Resolution on Statistics of Work Relationships
  • This resolution pertains to the introduction of a new classification for work status. Currently, Stats SA employs the 1993 classification of status in employment, which aligns with the International Classification of Status in Employment (ICSE) and categorizes employed individuals into four distinct groups.
  • The recent implementation of the 2018 classification (ISCE-18), which expands the categories to ten, will enable more insights into employment relationships.
  • This resolution does not replace ICSE-93, which is still the most widely used by national statistical systems in the production of labour statistics, but complements it.
  • ICSE-18, i.e. Statistics on work relationships, aim to provide information on the nature of the economic risks and authority experienced by workers, the strength and nature of their attachment to the economic unit in which they work, and the impact of economic and social changes on their work.

• 21st ICLS Resolution on Measuring the Informal Economy
  • According to ICSE 18, this standard facilitates the assessment of informality across various employment statuses.
  • The adoption of this framework is expected to significantly alter informality data
    • the current definition of the informal sector refers to registration and size; the new resolution states that registration is the key criteria. Size is no longer a required criterion.
    • The current definition of informal employment uses medical aid and written contract as two of the three criteria required; the new definition prioritizes social insurance or access to paid and sick leave (which must be both accessible).
  • The implementation of the latest labour statistics standards and the associated revision to the QLFS will improve knowledge on labour market issues, though doing so may cause breaks in series in key informality indicators. However, ILO studies from countries that have adopted the 21st ICLS resolution suggest that changes in informality statistics are generally minimal, with only limited exceptions observed in specific national contexts.

The benefits of implementing the new standards far outweigh the costs, enabling a more accurate interpretation of individuals’ labour force situation with more detailed information on various types of labour underutilization, people’s participation in different forms of work, and the pressure they put on the labour market.

The implementation of the updated questionnaire marks a significant step forward in the effort to provide timely and relevant labour market insights for policymakers, researchers, and the public. Through these enhancements, Stats SA aims to capture a more nuanced understanding of employment trends, economic participation, and the overall labour market in South Africa.