Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2021, Quarter 1

South Africa, 2021

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Reference ID

ZAF_2021_QLFS-Q1_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

13050

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676

Identification

Survey ID number

ZAF_2021_QLFS-Q1_v01_M

Title

Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2021

Subtitle

Quarter 1

Country/Economy

Name	Country code
South Africa	ZAF

Study type

Labor Force Survey [hh/lfs]

Series Information

Statistics South Africa. Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2021: Q1 [dataset]. Version 1. 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 1: Edited, anonymised dataset for public distribution

Version Date

2021-06-08

Version Notes

This version was retrieved by DataFirst on the 8th of June 2021.

Scope

Notes

For Q1 2021 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, as well as by geographic type.

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 QLFS uses a master sampling frame that is used by several household surveys conducted by Statistics South Africa. This wave of the QLFS is based on the 2013 master frame, which was created based on the 2011 census. There are 3324 PSUs in the master frame and roughly 33000 dwelling units.

The sample for the QLFS is based on a stratified two-stage design with probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling of PSUs in the first stage, and sampling of dwelling units (DUs) with systematic sampling in the second stage.

For each quarter of the QLFS, a quarter of the sampled dwellings are rotated out of the sample. These dwellings are replaced by new dwellings from the same PSU or the next PSU on the list. For more information see the statistical release.

Weighting

The sample weights were constructed in order to account for the following: the original selection probabilities (design weights); adjustments for PSUs that were sub-sampled or segmented; excluded population from the sampling frame (EAs with insufficient DUs); non-response; weight trimming; benchmarking to known population estimates from the Demographic Analysis Chief Directorate within Stats SA; and raking to bias-adjusted control estimates from a bias-adjustment procedure to compensate for the non-coverage bias in the sample due to only observing those households that can be contacted by telephone.

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
2021-01	2021-03

Data Collection Notes

COVID 19 Affected data collection for QLFS 2020 Q1. Please see the sampling section and the statistical release for more on this.

Data Access

Access authority

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

Access conditions

Public use files, available to all

Citation requirements

Statistics South Africa. Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2021: Q1 [dataset]. Version 1. 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 Support	University of Cape Town	support@data1st.org

Metadata production

DDI Document ID

DDI_ZAF_2021_QLFS-Q1_v01_M

Producers

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

Date of Metadata Production

2021-06-08

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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