Mexico
1. Title of the survey
National Urban Employment Survey, Register of Households (Encuesta
Nacional de Empleo Urbano, Registro de Hogares - ENEU).
2. Organisation responsible for the survey
General Directorate of Statistics, National Institute of Statistics,
Geography and Data-Processing, Secretariat of Programming and Budget
(Dirección General de Estadística, Instituto Nacional de Estadística,
Geografia e Informática, Secretaria de Programación y Presupuesto).
3. Coverage of the survey
(a) Geographical
The ENEU provides information on the 12 principal metropolitan areas of
the country (Mexico City and the cities of Guadalajara, Monterrey,
Chihuahua, Leon, Mérida, Orizaba, Puebla, San Luis Potosí, Tampico,
Torreón, and Veracruz).
Since 1985 the ENEU has also covered four towns on the border with the
United States, namely Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, Matamoros and Nuevo
Laredo.
(b) Persons covered
All persons living in private dwellings. The survey collects
sociological and demographic information on all persons living in the
dwelling and information on employment for all persons aged 12 years and
over. If a member of the armed forces is resident in a private dwelling
interviewed by the ENEU, his information is taken down.
Persons resident in collective dwellings (hospitals, prisons, hotels,
etc.) are excluded.
Publication of results concentrates on that part of the population aged
12 years and over.
4. Periodicity of the survey
Quarterly.
5. Reference period
The week prior to the interview.
6. Topics covered by the survey
The survey provides information on employment, unemployment,
underemployment, hours of work, wages and income, employment in the
informal sector, duration of unemployment, discouraged and occasional
workers, industry, occupation, status in employment and level of
education/qualifications.
7. Concepts and definitions
(a) Employment
"Employed persons are all persons aged 12 years and over who, during
the reference week:
- took part in economic activities for at least one hour or one day in
exchange for an income in cash or in kind, or without receiving payment;
- did not work but had a job;
- were to start work in any occupation within at most one month."
"Also considered as employed are all persons who, during the reference
week, were on holiday or on sick or other leave, travelling, settling
private business, and/or attending courses whilst receiving pay.
Persons who are ill or laid off without pay, or affected by a strike or
labour stoppage, by the end of a farming season or bad weather, market
shortage of materials, lack of funds or customers or of a vehicle, or by
mechanical breakdown or for any other reason, are considered as
employed, provided always that they are sure of being able to resume
their work within less than one month."
Employed persons include:
- full- and part-time workers seeking other work during the reference
week;
- 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;
- full- and part-time students working full- or part-time;
- paid or unpaid apprentices and trainees;
- paid and unpaid family workers (unpaid family workers temporarily
absent from work must return thereto in less than one month to be
considered as employed);
- private domestic servants (working for pay);
- members of producers' co-operatives;
- volunteer and career members of the armed forces.
Excluded from the employed and considered as inactive are:
- persons engaged only in their own housework;
- conscripts;
- members of civilian services equivalent to military service;
- persons doing unpaid community or social work.
(b) Underemployment
"Underemployment
occurs where the job fails to achieve certain standards
of employment, i.e. where hours worked and earnings are less than
normal, or the work done does not make full use of the workers'
qualifications and abilities."
(c) Unemployment
"Open unemployment is that affecting all persons aged 12 years and over
who were not employed in the reference week and who tried unsuccessfully
to find work in an economic activity in the two months preceding the
field work of the survey."
Included in the unemployed are:
- persons laid off temporarily or for an indefinite period without pay
(if they are not sure of being able to resume work in less than one
month);
- full- and part-time students looking for full- or part-time work;
- seasonal workers awaiting agricultural or other seasonal work, and
share croppers.
"Looking for work" means any of the following: looking for paid
employment; trying to work on one's own account; taking steps to
set up one's own business; trying to learn sales technique, etc.
There is no unemployment insurance scheme in Mexico.
Excluded from the unemployed and considered as inactive are persons
without a job, currently available for work, who do not look for work
during the reference week because they believe that no work will be
given to them.
(d) Hours of work
Questions are asked to determine the hours actually worked during the
reference week in the main and secondary activities. The number of
hours worked on each day of the week is noted and expressed as total
hours per week.
(e) Informal sector
This comprises establishments that are not registered with the financial
authorities and can function with a precarious economic infrastructure
(as regards premises, means of production, employees, etc.).
(f) Usual activity
This topic is not
covered by the survey.
8. Classifications used
Employed persons and unemployed persons with previous work experience
are classified by industry, occupation and status in employment. All
persons aged 6 years and over who are covered by the survey are
classified by level of education.
(a) Industry
Seventy-three industries are coded to subgroup level (four digits).
The classification is compatible with the
International Standard Industrial Classification of
all Economic Activities (ISIC-1968).
(b) Occupation
The national classification is the Mexican Classification of
Occupations (CMO-1980), which comprises four levels. Coding is done
to 18 groups. This classification is compatible with the
International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-1968).
(c) Status in employment
Ten different types of status in employment are used. They are
compatible with the International Classification of Status in Employment
(ICSE).
(d) Level of education/qualifications
For all persons aged 6 years and over the last grade of completed
studies is investigated, that is, the level of education (primary,
secondary or equivalent, prevocational or vocational training, technical
or teacher's training college, professional or post-graduate) and the
name of the technical or professional career, the post, training course
or speciality. The information is coded to 5-digit level. The
classification is compatible with the International Standard
Classification of Education (ISCED-1976).
9. Sample size and design
(a) The sample frame
This is a multiphase frame in which the first phase relates to the
weights of dwellings of the primary sampling units, taken from the 10th
Population and Housing Census of 1980; the second phase selects listed
areas; and the last, dwellings.
The frame is updated by ascertaining the growth of the urban area and
growth in the listed areas.
(b) The sample
The survey uses a multistage self-weighted stratified sampling design.
Stratification is in accordance with socio-economic conditions. The
ultimate sampling unit is the dwelling. The sample is updated by
panels. (No additional information is not available).
(c) Rotation
Twenty per cent of the dwellings are rotated every quarter. Each
dwelling is interviewed five times in succession and the sample is
completely renewed after five quarters.
10. Field work
(a) Data collection
Field work is done by a permanent survey organisation. Data are
obtained by personal interview. Field work takes seven days in each
quarter.
(b) Substitution of ultimate sampling units
In case of absence or non-response, ultimate sampling units are not
renewed.
11. Quality controls
Field work is scrutinised by supervisors who supervise interviews and
carry out re-interviews. Data being compiled are subject to critical
examination, their coding is supervised and they are revised for
completeness and consistency.
12. Weighting the sample
The expansion factor is obtained by multiplying a primary sampling unit
by the probability of selection of the listed area.
13. Sampling errors
Data are not available.
14. Adjustments
(a) Population not covered
No adjustment is made.
(b) Under/overcoverage
No adjustment is made.
(c) Non-response
The total non-response rate is 12.9 per cent. No adjustment is made.
15. Seasonal adjustment
No adjustment is made for seasonal variations.
16. Non-sampling errors
Not available.
17. History of the survey
The first survey was conducted in 1972, and since then, Employment
Surveys have been made regularly (the forerunner of the ENEU was the
Continuous Occupation Survey (Encuesta Contínua sobre Ocupación -
ECSO)). However, the means of data acquisition have been revised and
amended on various occasions.
The ENEU has been used to apply special modules relating to migration,
fertility, medical employment, manpower training and rural employment,
and has served as a frame for, inter alia, surveys of crime and the
informal sector of the economy.
18. Documentation
Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografia e Informática, Dirección
General de Estadística: "Boletín Mensual de Empleo" (Monthly Employment
Bulletin) (Mexico City). Preliminary results are published
approximately 45 days after the reference period of the survey.
idem: "Cuaderno de Información Oportuna" (Useful Information) (monthly)
(ibid.).
idem: "Indicadores trimestrales de Empleo" (Employment: quarterly
indicators) (ibid.); contains definitive figures.