Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2020, Quarter 4

South Africa, 2020

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Reference ID

ZAF_2020_QLFS-Q4_v01_M

Producer(s)

Statistics South Africa

Collection(s)

DataFirst , University of Cape Town, South Africa

Metadata

Documentation in PDF DDI/XML JSON

Study website

Created on

Oct 25, 2021

Last modified

Oct 25, 2021

Page views

5393

Downloads

430

Identification

Survey ID number

ZAF_2020_QLFS-Q4_v01_M

Title

Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2020

Subtitle

Quarter 4

Country/Economy

Name	Country code
South Africa	ZAF

Study type

Labor Force Survey [hh/lfs]

Series Information

Statistics South Africa. Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2020: Q4 [dataset]. Version 2. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa [producer], 2021. Cape Town: DataFirst [distributor], 2021.

Abstract

The Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) is a household-based sample survey conducted by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA). It collects data on the labour market activities of individuals aged 15 years or older who live in South Africa.

Kind of Data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Unit of Analysis

Individuals

Version

Version Description

Version 02: Edited, anonymised dataset for public distribution

Version Date

2020-03-28

Version Notes

Version 1 was accessed by DataFirst on the 22nd of March 2021. It didn't contain covid variables.

Version 2 was received by DataFirst from Stats SA on the 16th of July 2021. It contains the 9 covid variables and is otherwise the same as version 1.

Scope

Notes

For Q4 2020 Statistics South Africa contiued to use Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing, in an attempt to reduce the spread of COVID-19. This meant that households without telephones were out of scope. See the statistical release for more information.

INDIVIDUALS: labour market activity, labour preferences, labour market history, demographic characteristics, marital status, employment status, education, grants, tax.

Coverage

Geographic Coverage

National coverage

Geographic Unit

Provincial and metropolitan level

Universe

The QLFS sample covers the non-institutional population of South Africa with one exception. The only institutional subpopulation included in the QLFS sample are individuals in worker's hostels. Persons living in private dwelling units within institutions are also enumerated. For example, within a school compound, one would enumerate the schoolmaster's house and teachers' accommodation because these are private dwellings. Students living in a dormitory on the school compound would, however, be excluded.

Producers and sponsors

Primary investigators

Name
Statistics South Africa

Sampling

Sampling Procedure

The sampling procedure for this quarter of the QLFS had to be changed from the norm due to covid-19. In this 2020 Q4 the sample used was the same sample as from Q3, Q2 and Q1 from 2020. Because the interviews were done telephonically, any sampling units that did not have telephones dropped out of the sample. This was adjusted for in the weighting procedure.

Weighting

Because the survey was done via telephone, households without telephones were essentially out of scope. To account for this problem, weights were "bias-adjusted" by Statistics South Africa. There was also significant imputation done to try and make the data more representative, despite covid.

For more details see section 4 of the statical release and the metadata document.

Survey instrument

Questionnaires

The survey questionnaire consists of the following sections:

Biographical information (marital status, education, etc.)
Economic activities in the last week for persons aged 15 years and older
Unemployment and economic inactivity for persons aged 15 years and above
Main work activity in the last week for persons aged 15 years and above
Earnings in the main job for employees, employers and own-account workers aged 15 years and above

From 2010 the income data collected by South Africa's Quarterly Labour Force Survey is no longer provided in the QLFS dataset (except for a brief return in QLFS 2010 Q3 which may be an error). Possibly because the data is unreliable at the level of the quarter, Statistics South Africa now provides the income data from the QLFS in an annualised dataset called Labour Market Dynamics in South Africa (LMDSA). The datasets for LMDSA are available from DataFirst's website.

Data collection

Dates of Data Collection

Start	End
2020-10	2020-12

Data Collection Notes

This QLFS used Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) instead of face-to-face interviews because of the covid-19 pandemic.

Data processing

Data Editing

In general, imputation was used for item non-response (i.e., blanks within the questionnaire) and edit failures (i.e., invalid or inconsistent responses).

Data Access

Access authority

Name	Affiliation	URL	Email
DataFirst	University of Cape Town	http://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za	support@data1st.org

Access conditions

CC-BY attribution-only license

Citation requirements

Statistics South Africa. Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2020: Q4 [dataset]. Version 2. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa [producer], 2021. Cape Town: DataFirst [distributor], 2021.

Disclaimer and copyrights

Disclaimer

The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.

Contacts

Name	Affiliation	Email
DataFirst Helpdesk	University of Cape Town	support@data1st.org

Metadata production

DDI Document ID

DDI_ZAF_2020_QLFS-Q4_v01_M

Producers

Name	Affiliation	Role
DataFirst	University of Cape Town	DDI Producer
Development Economics Data Group	The World Bank	Metadata adapted for Microdata Library

Date of Metadata Production

2021-07-30

Metadata version

DDI Document version

Version 01: This metadata was downloaded from DataFirst website(https://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za/dataportal/index.php/catalog/central). The following two metadata information has been edited – Document and Survey ID.

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