Tag: unemployment

Labour Underutilization: Concept and Measurement (3/3)

Section 3: Some Lessons from the 2012 Sakernas

As discussed above, the Sakernas (until 2015) is unable to provide data on “potential labour force” (PLF), the second component of the labour underutilized” (LU). The reason for this is that the questionnaire of the survey does not contain the question of “the availability of work”. However, part of PLF (using ICLS-19 standard) has been included already in the unemployment rate; namely, “discouraged job seeker” (DJS).

The estimated population of DJS, according to Sakernas 2012, is around 2.26 million. This is a big number as reflected in the DRS-unemployment ratio which is about 31:100. The table also shows some numbers that can be used to estimate population or ratios of some components of Working-age Population (WAP) as below:

  • Unemployment (U) = 7.2 million, if DJS is considered as part of U (as official figure); OR 5.0 million, if DJS if DJS is considered as part of “Outside LF)” (as suggested by ICLS-19);
  • Unemployment rate= 6.1% or 4.3%; depending on how to treat DJS;
  • Time-related Underemployment (TRU) = 11.5 million
  • Labour Underemployment (LU) >= 18.8 million, if LU>=U+TRU, and
  • LU rate >= 15.9%, if LU rate = (LU/Labour Force) *100.

[Beck to Section 1]

Labour Underutilization: Concept and Measurement (2/3)

Preliminary notes:

The concept of labour underutilization as discussed in the first section is the product of the resolution of  ICLS-19 hosted by ILO aimed mainly to be used as global guidelines in the area of labour statistics.  However, as a product of an ILO resolution, the concept is not binding for the participating countries of ILO. They might not be able to promptly follow the guidelines for practical reasons and hence need some time to apply in their actual survey. Part of the reasons for the participating countries are: (1) the need to “harmonize” the concept with actual situation of labour market they face, (2) the need to maintain “consistency” (as opposed to “validity”) of labour statistics between years to avoid confusion among data users, (3) the need test carefully the practicality of the concept in actual survey, and (4) the need to follow their own priorities in statistical activities. 

 

Section 2: Data Availability

At first glance, it appears to be that all the proposed components of “labour underutilization” as outlined in Section 1 are readily produced by a standard labour force survey. However, that is not fully the case, at least in the case of Indonesia. Here is a brief description on that issue.

Until 2015[1], the questionnaire of Sakernas, or Indonesia Labour Force Survey (ILFS) has no question on “the availability of work”. (What is available is a question on “the readiness to accept an offer for more job” that is intended to capture “time-related underemployment” as discussed in Section 1.)

In order to produce official statistics on unemployment, Sakernas defines unemployment put simply as:

(“Not in employment”) & ((“Seeking work”) OR (“Not seeking work due “Future start”” OR “Discouraged”)).

The above definition results in the figure of unemployment as mentioned in Section 1. The definition clearly shows that “availability for work” is ignored in defining “unemployment”.

The above definition “correctly” includes “future start” (not seeking because of having a job already) but “wrongly” includes “discouraged” (not seeking because of feeling there is no opportunity) in the unemployment. According to ICLS-19, “discourage” job seeker belongs to “outside labour fore” category, not “unemployment” (hence not in “labour force” category). In other word the official statistics of unemployment of Indonesia has in fact already included “discouraged” component of “outside labour force” (per ICLS-19 standard). As will be shown soon in Section 3, this component is relatively big, roughly 31% of the unemployment in 2012.

[1] Since 2016 BPS has initiated to improve the Sakernas questionnaire in order to address most of the issues raised by ICLS-19. Processes to refine the questionnaire toward this direction are still in place, until now.

[Proceed to Section 3: Sekernas’ Lessons]

 

Source: Google

 

19 Selected Tables from the ILFS

If you are interested in employment-related issues in Indonesia, this post is the right one for you.

 

Sakernas, or Indonesia Labour Force Survey (ILFS), provides regularly a number of tables concerning labour statistics of Indonesia. Some of the tables (in Excel) are published regularly HERE.

The 19 tables found that link is presented at the national level, disaggregated by age groups, gender, type of residence, and educational level. In some cases, time series data are available there.

HERE is the list of the tables.

 

Source: Google