Workforce Survey (EFL) 2019

Workforce surveys in the world are going through the most profound process of change since the 1982 regulations as a result of the resolutions emerging from the 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) in 2013 and the 20th ICLS 2018.

The 19th ICLS proposes for the first time what the horizon of all forms of work is, identifying within it those that are specifically market-based, as well as the indicators of underutilization of the workforce, for which it introduced precisions to identify the desires and job availability of the population regardless of whether it has an active or passive attitude regarding its integration into the labor market.

The 20th ICLS, for its part, addressed statistics on labor relationships or ways of insertion into the world of work. It introduced ten categories in this regard that denote different degrees of employment security or employment stability, making visible in particular insertion phenomena that are increasingly gaining momentum and that operate in a gray area from the point of view of national legislation by combining characteristics of dependent and independent employment without being reducible to one or the other.

The concepts involved in the resolutions of both ICLS are more cognitively demanding in the process of interviewing informants than a workforce survey traditionally requires. Taking these concepts to an operational level and expressing them in a questionnaire has required a long cycle of tests until reaching an exercise with statistical validity of its contents.

The INEGI undertook these tests to comply with the provisions of the Law of the National System of Statistical and Geographical Information (LSNIEG) in its article 54 and with Convention 160 of the International Labour Organization (ILO), signed by the Mexican Government and through which it is required to generate statistics on the workforce applying the most recent international recommendations on the matter.

In addition to the above and considering the need to collect specific information about the reality of the labor market in Mexico, in this process of conceptual update, topics about the workplace, the use of digital platforms, quality in the work environment, initial and probationary training contracts, training programs, among others.

The design process of a new Workforce Survey has been long and careful, carried out with firm steps and documenting each of its phases, which will make possible to have sufficient evidence on the impact of these adjustments on workforce statistics. The Workforce Survey. Experimental exercise (EFL) carried out in November 2019 culminates the cycle of cognitive tests with a statistical test that indicates the future direction to be adopted in the collection of employment information in household surveys.

Finally, it is important to note that the testing process experienced so far is on the workforce questionnaire, but the accompanying sociodemographic questionnaire was also subject to updates. Otherwise, the tests have been carried out on paper questionnaires and its functionality in digital formats for mobile devices is pending. A comprehensive test of instruments on digital devices and depending on budgetary resources, would be ideal to get everything ready before the adoption of these contents in larger samples and with representative estimates at the national and state levels.

The INEGI, as the body in charge of coordinating the National System of Statistical and Geographical Information (SNIEG), has among its functions to generate statistical information of national interest, which is why it is in charge of directing the update of the measurement of the workforce in our country, under the new national and international standards.

The Institute began the work of designing a new Workforce Survey, through the application of cognitive tests, which, unlike a pilot test in which complete questionnaires are applied, said tests are qualitative analysis focused on specific contents; that operate based on (non-probabilistic) theoretical sampling and focuses on certain profiles or cases that pose conceptual challenges to be recovered through an interview.

The process began formally in April 2017, with the visit to the INEGI of the ILO officials from the offices in Geneva, Switzerland and Latin America and the Caribbean, in order to plan a series of tests under the cognitive modality and the collection of the first quantitative test. The Institute continued the work of this type of tests in 2018 and 2019, a period in which the ILO provided follow-up and feedback to the process, which made it possible to better incorporate the 19th and 20th ICLS and collect evidence on its testing process adaptation in the country.

During these years worked, six cognitive tests were carried out, which made it possible to strengthen the generation of reagents for measuring the phenomena stated in the conferences.

Finally, in November 2019, the leap was made from qualitative tests to quantitative tests, that is, under a statistical design translated into a sufficiently large sample size and probabilistic selection to generate robust and unbiased estimates of the most relevant concepts of where populations can be inferred at the national level.

• To test the fluency of the questionnaire, its performance in the field, as well as the ability to provide solutions to interviewers in certain situations that they may face.
• To carry out the aforementioned based on the statistical design of an independent survey and no longer on a predetermined cases selection.
• To observe the convergences and differences between common indicators of the EFL 2019 questionnaire and the current ENOE questionnaire.
• To refine the new strategy of income collection tested for the first time in the sixth cognitive test.
• To observe the development of the questionnaire in a wide field operation; that a person not linked to the design and development of this new instrument may be able to assimilate its concepts, protocols and resources.
• To know the time the population spends on activities, which are carried out without the measurement of a monetary remuneration.

The conceptual design of the EFL 2019 is the result of the experience and information gathered during the six cognitive tests that were carried out over more than two years for the adoption of the resolutions emanating from the 19th and 20th ICLS on labor statistics and labor relationships, as well as the incorporation of emerging topics in labor markets such as the use of digital platforms, quality in the work environment, initial and probationary training contracts, training programs, among others.

Target population
The target population of this survey is the population aged 15 years and over resident of the household at the moment of the interview.

Direct informant
The EFL 2019 questionnaire is designed with the purpose of being answered by direct informants, that is, only the selected person can provide the necessary information, since the collected data is personal and any inaccuracies derived from collecting it through a third party may invalidate the data from this interview in particular.

• EFL 2019. Sociodemographic questionnaire (CS).
• EFL 2019. Workforce questionnaire (CFT).

Thematic coverage
Workforce questionnaire of the EFL 2019, is made up of 17 sections with a total of 279 questions, from which 16 are intended for the interviewer specifically, 263 for the informant and 21 are notes for the interviewee.
With the information collected in the questionnaire, it will be possible to classify the population interviewed into a population that carries out market occupations (OM) and, the population that does not carry out market occupations (NOM); thus, it is important to respect the different sequences and indicators marked along the questionnaire to obtain the necessary information. The theme of the questionnaire is the following:

Classifiers used
For the information processing, the same classifiers implemented in the ENOE were used:

• Classification of kinship, 2011
• Classification of states and countries, 2012
• National Occupational Classification System (SINCO), 2011
• Mexican Classification of Study Programs by Fields of Academic Education (CMPE), 2011
• Classification for Economic Activities in Households (CAEH), 2014

International recommendations

• 15th ICLS (1993). Resolution concerning statistics of employment in the informal sector.
• 17th ICLS (2003). Guidelines concerning a statistical definition of informal employment.
• 18th ICLS (2008). Resolution concerning the measurement of working time.
• ILO (2012). Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work.
• ILO (2013). Measuring informality: A statistical manual on the informal sector and informal employment.
• 19th ICLS (2013). Resolution concerning statistics of work, employment and labor underutilization.
• UNECE (2015). Handbook on Measuring Quality of Employment. A Statistical Framework.
• 20th ICLS (2018). Resolution concerning statistics on work relationships.
• 20th ICLS (2018). Guidelines concerning measuring qualifications and skills mismatches.
• OECD (2019). Digital economy papers. Measuring platform mediated workers.
• ILO (2021). Reports of the first, second and third meetings of the Expert Group for the review of statistical standards on informality (Geneva Group).

The type of sampling used is probabilistic, three-stage, stratified and by clusters. Probabilistic because the selection units, that is, the housing units, have a known and non-zero probability of being selected. Three-stage because the Primary Sampling Units are selected, in a second stage the private housing units and in a third stage the person. Stratified because the Primary Sampling Units with similar characteristics are grouped to form strata, and by clusters because the housing units form groups.

• The housing unit

• The private housing unit

• The household, residents of the housing unit and the selected person.