Quarterly Labour Force Survey to commence in 2017

Guyana has not executed a Labour Force Survey as a unique subject-matter survey for more than two decades, making it difficult to source accurate data on unemployment rates.

This is according to the Bureau of Statistics which announced its publication of Compendium Three (3), further detailing the findings of the 2012 Census. The Compendium focuses on the Economic Activity profile of the Census, including; the size and composition of the population’s Labour Force, the level of employment and unemployment, types of economic activities undertaken within the economy and many other areas of interest.

In a statement on Wednesday evening, the Bureau said, as a consequence and as a second-best approach labour force data has been sourced from intercensal Household Budget Surveys or Censuses since the Census of 1991. It was further explained that “every Census and National Survey has therefore carried an economic activity module which has allowed on-going estimates and generation of key indicators on the Labour Force at intermittent periods over the past twenty-five years.”

As such, the agency noted that with technical support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Survey Department of the Bureau of Statistics is currently in its preparatory mode to begin the quarterly Labour Force Survey from 2017.

At this juncture, the Bureau of Statistics is asking the public to cooperate with its personnel during this exercise which will be on-going, to assist in achieving reliable and timely labour force data in the interest of planning for the development of the country’s labour force.

The findings of the 2012 Census puts Guyana’s unemployment rate at 12.5 percent. When further disaggregated by gender the unemployment rate for males was recorded as 10.6 percent and females 16.7 percent. Prior to the Census, the most recent unemployment rate was 10.7 percent from the 2006 Household Budget Survey (HBS), an intercensal survey.