The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) held, on Friday (8/21), a Special Webinar. At the invitation of the Directorate of Surveys, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) of Chile presented its experience with labor force surveys and indicators during the Covid-19 pandemic. With an audience of over 200 people, the event was attended by IBGE officials, Brazilian specialists and other Latin American statisitical offices.

David Niculcar, head of the Labor Statistics Department of INE in Chile, presented strategies for keeping the surveys going on in this critical period. He detailed the adjustments that were necessary in the data collection process, the changes in processes and methodology, as well as the use of the original sample of
the survey and the analyses of the indicators.

He explained that the INE carries out household surveys target at all persons aged 15 and over. The survey has a continuous collection all over the year and is in line with the International Labor Organization (ILO) recommendations to measure labor, employment and labor underutilization statistics. The sample design guarantees a representative estimate for a moving quarter, but not for monthly data. It also presents national and regional indicators, but there are no estimates at communal level (municipalities).

“Given the Covid-19 contingency, starting in the second half of March, the collection was mainly done by phone and, in some cases, based on a self-applicable questionnaire. We use a database consisting of just complete surveys. The response rate of the quarter April-May-June of 2020 was of 62.5%, representing
24.054 visited households, which guarantees coverage”, reported Mr. Niculcar.

The Head of the Institute in Chile says that, for the sake of transparency, INE has released five technical notes, since the beginning of the pandemic in March. They were focused on “Measuring bias on the main labor market indicators”, “Expected impact on indicators” and “International experiences”. INE has also
published a methodological document with the analysis of the Covid-19 pandemic effect on the sample design and estimates.

The Labor survey has an adjustment in the population projections based on the 2017 Population Census, thus, keeping in control even the possible relative difference (biases) from the sample. INE is also concerned about a more balanced distribution of the sample in the collection weeks composing the month and the quarter, The collection of June sub sample occurred between June 11 and July 9 of 2020.

Mr. Niculcar emphasized that the questionnaire is self-applicable, and INE uses a free tool of the World Bank for people to inform their data in the page of the Institute on the Internet. It works as an alternative to the phone, especially for wary citizens that feel more comfortable answering on the web. “Up to now, the use is of low incidence; respondents prefer the phone”, he highlights.

Mr. Niculcar claims that the impact in the response rate of the survey is due to the greater difficulty in having contact with respondents when compared to the face-to-face interview and it is also due to the fact that INE does not have access to the telephone numbers of the households, since there has been a great debate on
the sharing of personal data. In order to overcome this situation, the institute has now been resorting to the households of the sample that had already gone through the rotation cycle. The telephone survey takes, on average, 40 minutes.

In the technical note number 5, INE adopted the recommendation of the Economic Commission for the Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC); and the strategy was to follow up the behavior of April, May and June’s sample, comparing it with that of December, January and February.

“The difference between the previous unemployment rate and the simulated one was of 0.02 pp, a relatively acceptable difference. There were differences among the economic sectors. The greatest relative differences were seen in the activities of extraterritorial organizations, electricity, water supply, information and communication, administrative and support services. Conversely, the lowest ones were in the sector of construction, education, trade, real estate activities, transportation and storage”, said Mr. Niculcar.

Another of INE’s concerns, following ILO recommendations, is the to keep up with the international standards – especially the 19th CIET – in the labor force surveys and in the treatment of special situations and groups. For the Chilean official, there must be a balance between the quality of the indicator and the need for information to support public policies.

Guidelines were introduced on how to treat people away from work in the reference period. In line with ILO recommendations, new questions were included, as the one about expectations towards returning to work.

“Moreover, questions to measure the Covid-19 impact on workers’ income were included. They were added in the end of the job-searching module, at no expense of the current survey. We measured quality, not quantity, including three new questions. Those new questions will be published as of the quarter of May-July of 2020”, indicated INE’s Head.

As of June, all Covid-19-related questions were included, aiming, for instance, at characterizing previous jobs. The goal is to identify when the last job was terminated, the reason for layoff or quitting.

At last, the Head of Statistics at INE presented the main indicators of the labor force in Chile. The country has 15.67 million persons at working age, of whom 8.14 million are in the workforce: 7.14 million are employed and 996.9 thousand are unemployed. There are 7.54 million out of the workforce, and the unemployment rate is 12.2%, whereas the employment rate is of 45.6%.

At the end, Eduardo Rios Neto, IBGE Director of Surveys, highlighted the similarities of the challenges and strategies adopted by INE and the IBGE to go on carrying out their surveys. “Both countries have the same labor market characteristics; and I was quite surprised with the similar level of the results. In the methodological part, I very much liked the fact that both INE and the IBGE were fast and well-suceeded in the transition to telephone collection. In the USA, where telephone collection prevails, the surveys were suspended, whereas in Chile and Brazil, they went on”, emphazised Mr. Rios.

Cimar Azeredo, IBGE Deputy Director of Surveys observed that the whole accrued experience in the period of the pandemic will not be lost, for the way of carrying out surveys will never be the same. “What is clear to us is that, when everything goes back to normal with safety, we will not conduct surveys as before. Every week, we have talked to interviewers, choosing two by state, aiming to better understand this experience. Certainly, remote work will introduce significant changes in the way we work. I do not believe we will ever be the same again after this pandemic. We are all learning a lot from it.” declared Mr. Azeredo.

"The event was an amazing opportunity to get to know another country’s experience, in this moment of great adpatation in the way we carry out surveys. We found out that the challenges are much the same and, mainly, we realized we are learning lots of precious lessons in the process”, said Maria Lúcia Vieria, Coordinator of Labor and Income in the IBGE.