Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2020, Quarter 2

South Africa, 2020

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Reference ID

zaf-statssa-qlfs-2020-q2-v2.1

Producer(s)

Statistics South Africa

Collections

South African Labour Force Survey Data

Metadata

DDI/XML JSON

Created on

Oct 02, 2020

Last modified

Jul 13, 2021

Page views

47596

Downloads

3204

Identification

Survey ID number

zaf-statssa-qlfs-2020-q2-v2.1

Title

Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2020

Subtitle

Quarter 2

Country

Name	Country code
South Africa	zaf

Study type

Labour Force Survey [hh/lfs]

Series Information

Statistics South Africa. Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2020: Q2 [dataset]. Version 2. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa [producer], 2020. Cape Town: DataFirst [distributor], 2020.DOI: https://doi.org/10.25828/kg4n-kz59

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

Unit of Analysis

Individuals

Version

Version Description

v2.1: Edited, anonymised dataset for public distribution

Version Date

2021-02-10

Version Notes

Version 1 was downloaded by DataFirst on the 1st October 2020. It contained no data on covid-19.

Version 2 was received by DataFirst by email in late 2020, it included covid-19 related questions. Some processing was necessary before released (see data processing).

Version 2.1 was released after a mistake in the IDs (resulting in duplicate IDs) was found and corrected.

Scope

Notes

For Q2 2020 Statisics South Africa switched to a Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) method, in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19. 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.This version includes covid-19 related questions.

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.

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 samping procedure for this quarter of the QLFS had to be changed from the norm due to covid-19. In this 2020 Q2 the sample used was the same sample as from Q1 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 Q2 was done telehponically, households without telephones were essentially out of scope. To account for this problem, data from Q1 were used as the benchmark to which the Q2 weights were "bias-adjusted", in terms of labour market variables (status, sector, industry and occupation) and demographic (age, race and gender) characteristics, at three geographic levels. Note that Q1 2020 was itself imputed based on Q4 2019, so those imputations from Q4 would carry forward to 2020 Q1 and in turn to 2020 Q2.

Q2 was also adjusted for non-reponse, and again to be more consistent with population totals. For more details see section 4 of the stastical release.

Data collection

Dates of Data Collection

Start	End	Cycle
2020-04	2020-06	N/A

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

The covid-related varaibles were extracted from the version sent by email and added to the existing Q2 data (version 1). The non-covid parts of both were compared to confirm that no changes had been made to the non-covid variables in the interim.

The covid-related variables were labelled and encoded.

Three covid-related variables had the "-" symbol recorded, presumably for missing. This was changed to the more standard "." symbol, which happened in 65 cases.

Data appraisal

Data Appraisal

COVID 19 Affected data collection for QLFS 2020 Q2. Please see the data collection and sampling sections for more on this, and consult the statistical release for further information.

access_policy

Access authority

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

Access conditions

Public use files, available to all

Citation requirements

Contacts

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

Metadata production

Producers

Name	Affiliation	Role
DataFirst	University of Cape Town	DDI Producer

Date of Metadata Production

2021-02-10

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