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:
  1. 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;
  2. did not work but had a job;
  3. 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:

  1. full- and part-time workers seeking other work during the reference week;
  2. 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;
  3. full- and part-time students working full- or part-time;
  4. paid or unpaid apprentices and trainees;
  5. 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);
  6. private domestic servants (working for pay);
  7. members of producers' co-operatives;
  8. volunteer and career members of the armed forces.

Excluded from the employed and considered as inactive are:

  1. persons engaged only in their own housework;
  2. conscripts;
  3. members of civilian services equivalent to military service;
  4. 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:

  1. 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);
  2. full- and part-time students looking for full- or part-time work;
  3. 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.