THE Bureau of Statistics has recommenced the Guyana Labour Force Survey (GLFS), a quarterly household survey which provides key insights into the country’s labour market, including employment, unemployment and underemployment.

According to a press release, this sample survey is conducted in all regions of Guyana among persons 15 years old and over, regardless of employment status.

Areas covered in the survey include household composition and demographic characteristics, internal migration, education, vocational and professional training, job search and availability to work, income from main job/business and hours of work.

The bureau said that enumerators equipped with an official badge from the Bureau of Statistics as well as a tablet computer, will visit households to record the data using questionnaires that are on the device.

The release said that there are two types of questionnaires which will be used: household and individual. The household questionnaire will be administered to one person to capture data at the household level, while the individual questionnaire will be administered to each individual 15 years and older within the household. Each individual’s interview will last approximately 20-30 minutes.

The household questionnaire applies to all persons regardless of their age and questions include: “In which country were you born?”, “How many years have you been residing in Guyana on a continuous basis?”, “What is the highest level of education that you have attained?”, and “Are you now enrolled in a school or in an educational institution?”

Questions each individual 15 years or older will be asked include: “In the last seven days, did you do any work for a wage, salary, tips or any other pay, even if only for one hour?”, “What steps did you mainly take to seek work in the last 30 days?”, and “If an opportunity to work for pay or to start a business became available, could you have started or start working?”

According to the bureau, this survey will provide national-level labour force indicators which will be used by the government to identify the challenges that Guyana faces in the area of employment promotion and to develop, manage, and evaluate labour-market policies and programmes which support economic growth, training opportunities and job creation.

“The Bureau of Statistics urges all selected households to participate, as their input is crucial to developing a comprehensive understanding of labour trends and challenges. Please co-operate with our enumerators and answer every question truthfully and to the best of your ability.

“We also take this opportunity to remind the public that staff of the Bureau of Statistics are bound by the Statistics Act, to ensure the confidentiality of all information collected and severe penalties are in place for breaches of confidentiality. NO information which identifies you, your household or your individual responses will be made public or provided to any other agency. All data collected and analysed will be provided to the public in aggregated/summarised format,” the release added.