Indonesia

1. Title of the survey

National Labour Force Survey.

2. Organisation responsible for the survey

Central Bureau of Statistics - CBS (Biro Pusat Statistik).

3. Coverage of the survey

(a) Geographical

The whole country (27 provinces).

(b) Persons covered

All persons who are residents in private households throughout the country, including members of the armed forces.

Excluded are unsettled and institutional populations, foreigners, persons residing abroad and non-resident citizens.

The labour force consists of persons aged 10 years and over.

4. Periodicity of the survey

The survey is quarterly, conducted in February, May, August and November of each year. Published results are annual averages.

5. Reference period

The seven days preceding the enumeration day.

6. Topics covered by the survey

The survey provides information on employment, unemployment, hours of work, wages, industry, status in employment, and level of education.

7. Concepts and definitions

(a) Employment

The employed consist of "those persons (aged 10 years and over) who are currently working plus those who have a job but are temporarily absent from work during the reference week.

Persons are considered as currently working if they were working for earnings or profit or assisting others in obtaining earnings or profit for at least one hour during the reference week; Unpaid family workers are included in this category.

People having a job but currently not working are those normally working but absent during the reference week, such as government or private employees on leave, on strike, ill, and farmers with farmland waiting for harvest time or another reason."

Included in the employed are:

  1. full- and part-time workers seeking other work during the reference week;
  2. full- and part-time students working full- or part-time;
  3. persons who performed some work for pay or profit during the reference week, while being subject to compulsory schooling; or retired and receiving a pension; or registered as jobseekers at an employment office or receiving unemployment benefits;
  4. paid or unpaid apprentices and trainees;
  5. participants in employment promotion schemes;
  6. paid and unpaid family workers, including unpaid family workers who were temporarily absent from work during the reference week;
  7. private domestic servants;
  8. members of producers' co-operatives who actively participate in the cooperatives;
  9. seasonal workers awaiting agricultural or other seasonal work;
  10. persons with a job but temporarily absent due to bad weather or mechanical breakdown, labour-management dispute or other reduction in economic activity, provided they will return to their former job on a determined date;
  11. members of the armed forces.

Excluded from the employed and considered as out of the labour force are persons engaged in own housework; and persons doing unpaid community or social work.

(b) Underemployment

This topic is not directly covered by the survey; however, data could be derived from the information collected on working hours, status in employment and economic activity.

(c) Unemployment

The unemployed comprise persons aged 10 years and over who, during the reference week, do not have any job and are making some efforts to find a job, or who have made arrangements to start a new job on a date subsequent to the reference week. They also include those persons who are without previous work experience.

Also included are:

  1. full- and part-time students seeking full- or part-time work;
  2. members of producers' co-operatives not actively participating in the co-operatives;
  3. persons without work, currently available for work but not seeking work during the reference week for reasons such as short illness, short courses, etc.

"Efforts to find a job" means having taken, during the reference week, such steps as registration at an employment agency; direct contacts with an establishment; etc.

(d) Hours of work

They refer to total hours actually worked in main activity and in all jobs, during the reference week, including overtime, and excluding time spent commuting from home to place of work (except for peddlers) and formal meal breaks.

(e) Informal sector

This topic is not covered by the survey. The criteria used to identify the informal sector are location, economic activity status and occupation; however, occupation is not collected in the survey.

(f) Usual activity

This topic is not covered by the survey, but by Population Censuses and the Intercensal Population Survey.

8. Classifications used

Only employed persons are classified by industry and status in employment. All persons aged 10 years and above are classified according to the highest level of education completed.

(a) Industry

The national classification is the Standard Classification of Industries of Indonesia. Since 1986, data for main industry are classified according to five groups only, i.e. Agriculture; Manufacturing industry; Trade; Services; and Others; the "others" group includes Mining and quarrying; Electricity, gas and water; Construction; Transportation, storage and communication; Financing, insurance, real estate and business services.

(b) Occupation

Since 1986, data are no longer collected on occupation through the Labour Force Survey; they are available through Population Censuses and the Intercensal Population Survey.

(c) Status in employment

The following groups are used for coding status in employment in main industry:
  1. Self-employed,
  2. Self-employed assisted by family member and/or temporarily worker,
  3. Employer,
  4. Employee,
  5. Family worker.

(d) Level of education/qualifications

Data are coded according to ten groups:
  1. Not attending school,
  2. Not completed primary school,
  3. Primary school,
  4. General junior high school,
  5. Vocational junior high school,
  6. General senior high school,
  7. Vocational senior high school,
  8. Diploma I/II,
  9. Academy/diploma III
  10. University.

9. Sample size and design

(a) The sample frame

A master frame is maintained by the CBS, which serves the purposes of several kinds of household surveys. The country is divided into 27 provinces, 300 regencies (municipalities), 3,515 subdistricts and 66,156 villages. Each village is divided into a number of Enumeration Districts (regular and special EDs) and each ED is subdivided into two, three or four census blocks, each of them with a clear natural boundary.

The master frame is updated on the basis of population and agricultural censuses and administrative regulations.

(b) The sample

A multi-stage stratified sampling design is used: stratification is done by urban and rural areas; a two-stage sampling design is used in urban areas and a three-stage design in rural areas.

In urban areas, primary sampling units (PSUs) are census blocks which are selected by systematic sampling method. From each sample PSU, households are then systematically selected with equal sampling interval (self-weighting design).

In rural areas, subdistricts (kecamatan) are selected in the first stage, with probability equal to the number of census blocks. Then from each sample subdistrict, two census blocks are selected randomly. In the last stage, households are selected by systematic sampling method from each sample census block.

The sampling interval for both urban and rural areas is specified by the CBS Regional Office, so that the number of household units be 10 on average per census block.

The total number of selected households for one year (four quarters) is about 64,000 units, i.e. around 16,000 per quarter. The sampling fraction is differentiated for each region and for rural and urban areas. The overall sampling fraction is about 0.18 per cent.

Up to 1987, the sample was updated every two years and since 1988, it is updated every year, using subsample rotation.

(c) Rotation

Half of the selected households remain in the sample for two consecutive survey rounds. In 1986/87, a sampling unit was interviewed a maximum of four times, and in 1988, only twice.

10. Field work

(a) Data collection

The CBS Regional office is responsible for the survey organisation and personnel recruitment for each survey round. Data are collected by personal interviews carried out mostly by permanent staff. Field work takes place the last fortnight of the mid-month of each quarter.

(b) Substitution of ultimate sampling units

When a USU cannot be reached, it is replaced by the next or previous selected household.

11. Quality controls

Comprehensive instructions are given to all enumerators; field work and editing are controlled by supervisors (one for three to four enumerators). At the processing stage, strict rules are applied with regard to the despatch of questionnaires, their coding, editing, validation and tabulation; validation operations can take up to five cycles, before final data are tabulated.

12. Weighting the sample

Estimation is based on the latest total of "clean" USUs (i.e. editable and accepted sample units). The sample results are expanded to national estimates based on the total number of persons aged 10 years and over in the sample and the total population for each province (region) by urban/rural areas, derived from population projections of the corresponding year.

13. Sampling errors

Not available.

14. Adjustments

(a) Population not covered

No adjustments are made.

(b) Under/overcoverage

No adjustments are made.

(c) Non-response

The non-response rate is not available. No adjustments are made.

15. Seasonal adjustment

No adjustment is made for seasonal variations.

16. Non-sampling errors

Not available.

17. History of the survey

In 1975 a pilot Labour Force Survey was conducted in Java and Sumatra. It was followed by a National Labour Force Survey conducted in September-December 1976, then by quarterly surveys in 1977, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1987 and 1988.

18. Documentation

Biro Pusat Statistik (Central Bureau of Statistics): "Keadaan Angkatan Kerja di Indonesia" (Labor Force Situation in Indonesia) (annual) (Djakarta). Data are normally published six to eight months after the end of the reference year.

idem: "Statistik Indonesia" (Statistical Year Book of Indonesia) (ibid.).

Since 1988, the LFS results are also published in quarterly reports which are available from the CBS. In addition, starting with the 1986 LFS, additional non-published results can be made available on tape, upon request.