National Statistical Institute

Labour Market Statistics Department

Jana Gueron

Diana Toteva

Tsveta Kostova

State expert

State expert

Chief expert

2, P. Volov Str.; 1038 Sofia, Bulgaria

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

(+359 2) 9857 549

(+359 2) 9857 664

(+359 2) 9857 619

Annual data from the Labour Force Survey

The Labour force survey is a sample statistical survey carried out through households. The main purpose of the survey is to provide data on labour status of population aged 15 years and over and for the main characteristics of employed, unemployed and persons out of labour force in the Republic of Bulgaria.

The classifications applied in the Labour force survey are harmonised with the international classifications in terms of economic activities, occupations, levels of education. The main classifications used are the following:

• International Standard Classification of Education, 2011 version (ISCED 2011);
• International Standard Classification of Education, 1997 version (ISCED 1997) - until 2013;
• Classification of Economic Activities (CEA-2008, for international use NACE.BG 2008) - since 2008;
• National Classification of Occupations and Duties-2005 (NCOD-2005) (1st digit - occupational class), comparable to the International Standard Classification of Occupations - ISCO '88 - until 2010;
• National Classification of Occupations and Duties-2011 (NCOD-2011) (1st digit - occupational class), comparable to the International Standard Classification of Occupations - ISCO'08 - since 2011;
• International classification of professional status - ICSE-93;
• Classification of Territorial Units for Statistical Purposes in Bulgaria - NUTS.

All persons aged 15 years and over living in the selected non-institutional households are covered.

The Labour force survey provides estimates for the main characteristics of labour market as employment, unemployment, inactivity, occupations, economic activities, working time and other, as well as social-demographic characteristics as sex, age, place of residence (urban/rural), education etc.

The main definitions applied in the survey are in accordance with the recommendation of International Labour Organisation and EU legislation. The definition of unemployment is according to Commission Regulations No 1897/2000.

Employed are persons aged 15 and over who during the reference period:

• performed some work for at least one hour for pay in cash or in kind or other income;
• did not work but had a job or an enterprise, a business from which they were temporarily absent due to illness, annual leave, full-paid maternity leave, parental leave, strike or another labour dispute, etc.

Unemployed are persons aged 15 to 74 who:

• did not work at all during the reference period;
• were actively seeking work within the preceding four weeks, including the reference one or have found a new job or business that is expected to start within 3 months following the reference period;
• were available to start working within two weeks following the reference period.

Economically active population (labour force) comprises all employed and unemployed persons.

Activity rate - ratio between the economically active population and the total population of the same age group.

Employment rate - ratio between the employed population and the total population of the same age group.

Unemployment rate - ratio between the unemployed persons and the economically active population.

Duration of unemployment is the duration of the search for employment or the length of the period since leaving last job; whichever period is shorter.

Long-term unemployed are persons who have been unemployed for one or more years.

Long-term unemployment rate - ratio between the long-term unemployed persons and the economically active population.

Persons not in the labour force (inactive population) are persons aged 15 and over who were neither employed, nor unemployed during the reference period. All persons on leave for taking care of children until 2 years of age are also included.

Discouraged persons are persons not in the labour force who want to work but who do not actively look for a job, because they do not believe they will find one.

Working time. Distinction between full-time and part-time work is made according to the subjective declaration of the respondents.

The number of actual working hours per week refers to the main job, incl. paid or unpaid overtime.

Professional status. According to the professional status the employed persons are classified in the following categories:

• employers - persons who work in their own enterprise, business, farm, professional practice and employ at least one other person;
• self-employed - persons who work in their own enterprise, business, farm, professional practice and do not employ any other person;
• employees - persons who work for a public or private employer and who receive wages (salaries), fees, remuneration by civil contract etc;
• unpaid family workers - persons who work without pay in an enterprise, farm, owned and operated by a relative of the same households.

Economic activity. Economic activity is defined by the type of production or services provided by the local units of an enterprise, where a person works. Employed persons are classified by economic activity according to the NACE.BG 2008. Aggregated economic activity groupings according to nomenclature A21 are used.

Economic sectors. The employed are classified by economic sectors by aggregating the data by economic activity as follows:

• The Agriculture and forestry sector includes Agriculture, hunting, forestry and Fishing;
• The Industry sector includes Mining and quarrying, Manufacturing, Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities, Construction;
• The Service sector includes all other economic activities.

Occupations. Occupation is defined by the type of work that the person carries out on the main job during the reference week. Employed persons are classified by occupation according to the National Classification of Occupations and Duties-2011 (1^st digit - occupational class), comparable to the International Standard Classification of Occupations - ISCO-08.

Underemployed part-time workers and potential labour force

• Underemployed part-time workers - Persons aged 15-74 working part-time who wish to work additional hours and are available to do so.
• Persons seeking work but not immediately available - Persons aged 15-74 neither employed nor unemployed who meet one of the following criteria:

- actively seeking work during the last 4 weeks ( incl. the reference week) but not available for work in the next 2 weeks;

- found a job to start in less than 3 months and are not available for work in the next 2 weeks;

- found a job to start in 3 months or more;

- are passively seeking work (e.g. waiting for the results of a job interview) during the last 4 weeks and are available for work in the next 2 weeks.

• Persons available to work but not seeking - Persons aged 15-74 neither employed nor unemployed who want to work, are available for work in the next 2 weeks but do not seek work.

Specific indicators

• Employment rate of women with at least one child under 7 - a ratio between employed women (15-64) with at least one child under 7, living in the same household, and the total number of women (15-64) with at least one child under 7, living in the same household.
• Jobless households - a ratio between persons (aged 0-17 or 18-59) living in households where no-one works  and the total population of the same age group. Students aged 18-24, living in households, consisted solely of students of the same age group are excluded from the calculations.
• Early leavers from education and training - a ratio between persons aged 18-24 having attained lower secondary education as a highest and not received any education and training in the four weeks preceding the survey and the total population of the same age group.
• Youth education attainment level - share of population aged 20-24 having completed at least upper secondary education (ISCED 2011 level 3) in the total population of the same age group.
• Tertiary educational attainment - share of population aged 30-34 having completed tertiary education (ISCED 2011 levels 6-8) in the total population of the same age group.
• Lifelong learning - share of population aged 25-64 participating in education or training in the four weeks preceding the survey in the total population of the same age group.
• Young people neither in employment nor in education and training - share of population aged 15-24/15-29 not employed during the reference period and not participating in education or training in the four weeks preceding the survey, in the total population of the same age group.

Persons

Total population usually residing in Bulgaria, except persons living in collective households.

The whole territory of Republic of Bulgaria.

2003 - 2016

Not applicable

Most results measure number of persons in thousands and the rates - in %. The duration of actual working time is presented in hours.

For every person in the sample the reference period is one calendar week (from Monday to Sunday). Within each quarter the sample is evenly spread over the all 13 calendar weeks.

The concepts and definitions applied in the Labour force survey are in line with:

• Recommendations of the International Labour Organisation;
• Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 of 9 March 1998 on the organisation of a labour force sample survey in the Community;
• Commission Regulation (EC) No 1897/2000 of 7 September 2000 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 on the organisation of a labour force sample survey in the Community concerning the operational definition of unemployment;
• Regulation (EC) No 2257/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2003 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 on the organisation of a labour force sample survey in the Community to adapt the list of survey characteristics;
• Regulation (EC) No 1372/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 on the organisation of a labour force sample survey in the Community;
• Commission Regulation (EC) No 377/2008 of 25 April 2008 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 on the organisation of a labour force sample survey in the Community as regards the codification to be used for data transmission from 2009 onwards, the use of a sub-sample for the collection of data on structural variables and the definition of the reference quarters;
• Regulation (EU) No 545/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 on the organisation of a labour force sample survey in the Community; 
• Law on Statistics.

Not applicable

• Law on Statistics;
• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics (provision 24 and Article 20 (4)) (?J L 87, p. 164), stipulates the necessity to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

In accordance with Article 25 of the Law on Statistics Individual data are not published. Dissemination of individual data is possible only in accordance with Article 26 of the Law on Statistics.

Individual anonymous data provided for the purposes of scientific research do not consist any administrative data as personal information and address and do not allow direct identification. Additional aggregation of data is performed for some of the variables.

Data from the Labour force survey are published according to the Release Calendar presenting the results of the statistical surveys carried out by the National Statistical Institute. The main annual LFS results are disseminated by press release and on the NSI website.

The calendar is available on the NSI website: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/480

Data are disseminated on the NSI website, section Labour Market, and information system INFOSTAT in accordance with the Law on Statistics and European Statistics Code of Practice respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably.

Accessibility of all users to statistical data and equality of their rights are stipulated in the Regulation for dissemination of statistical products and services by the National Statistical Institute.

Yearly

Press release for the main Labour force survey annual results is posted on the NSI website (http://www.nsi.bg/en) according to the Release Calendar.

"Employment and unemployment - annual data" -  specialised electronic publication

General Publications of the NSI:

• Statistical Reference Book;
• Statistical Yearbook;
• "Bulgaria" (brochure).

Detailed annual results are available to all users on the NSI website under the heading Labour Market, Labour Force Survey, Annual data: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/6486 and through the information system INFOSTAT.

Individual anonymous micro-data could be provided for the scientific and research purposes by individual request according to the Regulation of submission of anonymous individual data for scientific and research purposes.

An information service could be provided by request, according to the NSI Rules for Dissemination of Statistical Information Products and Services.

• Methodology of the Labour force survey: http://www.nsi.bg/sites/default/files/files/metadata/LFS_Methodology_EN.pdf
• Leaflet "Labour Force Survey" - in Bulgarian
• Interviewers' instructions.

Annual Quality reports

Assurance of quality of Labour force survey in accordance with Quality management policy and Quality management programme of NSI.

NSI follows the recommendation of Eurostat Task Force on the Quality of the EU-LFS by fulfillment of the national Action Plan.

LFS Quality Report consisting information of different quality aspects is prepared each year.

The main users of LFS statistical data are:

• International organisations:

- European Commission - DG Employment and other Directorates

- Eurostat - Labour Market unit and other units

- European Central Bank

- OECD

- International Labour Organisation

- UNESCO

- UNICEF

• National users:

- Ministries and State agencies

- Bulgarian National Bank

- Trade Unions

- Employers' organisations

- Non-governmental organisations

- Research institutions

- Companies, agencies - for own marketing researches or consultancy activities.

Not available

The national Labour force survey implements the full set of compulsory variables, according to EU Regulations.

The sample used for the Labour force survey is a two-stage stratified cluster sample which includes about 19.6 thousand households each quarter (representing about 0.65% sampling rate). Due to the sampling approach used in the Labour force survey, the estimation of the parameters obtained from the Labour force survey could vary from those in the population due to sampling errors, errors due to non-response, errors in registration or processing etc.

Coefficients of variation (relative standard errors), standard errors and confidence intervals (i.e. the range of values that 95% of times would capture the true value in the population) are calculated for assessment of stochastic reliability of the estimates for main indicators.

The main LFS results are released about 2.5 months after the end of the reference year.

The LFS results are released strictly to the Release Calendar.

Comparability across EU Member States is considered high due to use of harmonised concepts, variables, definitions and classifications.

Since the beginning of 2003 a quarterly continuous Labour force survey which provides quarterly and annual estimates is implemented. From the same year the harmonised definition of unemployment in accordance with Commission Regulation No 1897/2000 has been applied.

Since the first quarter of 2012 a new weighting procedure has been used in the labour force survey which should be taken into account in use of LFS data. The main differences from the procedure used in previous years are the following:

• the number of age groups at national level for which the consistence between LFS estimates and current population estimates is achieved increased (from 4 to 14);
• population data used in LFS weighting procedure exclude population living in institutional households (which are not covered by the survey).

The discrepancy between current population estimates (used for initial LFS quarterly and annual estimates for 2010 and 2011) and the data from the Population Census as of 1 February 2011 has also impact over the comparability of LFS data. Due to availability of new population estimates based on 2011 Population Census and changes in LFS weighting procedure revised LFS estimates for 2010 and 2011 are produced and published at the NSI website.

In consequence the revised data for 2010 are not fully comparable with those for previous years.

Coherence with population data

The LFS uses the latest available population estimates (by age, place of residence, age group and districts) to gross up sample results. Since 2012 population data used for LFS estimates excluded persons living in collective households (which are out of scope of the survey).

Coherence with employment estimates in National Accounts

National Accounts use different data sources which are combined to obtain the best comprehensive and consistent estimate. In results National Accounts data could differ from the results of each source. For Bulgaria the main difference between LFS and NA refers to Agricultural employment. In the estimation of self-employment in agriculture NA use data based on Agricultural Census and sample surveys, carried out by Ministry of Agriculture and Food.

NA employment data are based on domestic concept (employment in resident production units irrespective of the place of residence of the employee) while LFS gives information on the national concept (i.e. resident employed).

LFS does not cover persons living in collective households, who are included in NA employment estimates.

In contrast to National Accounts persons on leave for taking care of a child until 2 years of age are not considered employed according to LFS.

Coherence with Annual and Quarterly Surveys on employees, hours worked, wages and salaries and other expenditures paid by the employer

The main methodological difference between the two surveys is the coverage of employed persons. The surveys on employee, hours worked, wages and salaries and other expenditures provides data on persons who work under employment contract according to the Labour Code or the State Officials Act, while the Labour force survey covers also persons employed by other type of contract or without formal contract and self employed persons (employers, own account workers and unpaid family workers). The published data on employees by labour contract do not include defence and public security activities.

The existed differences in terms of survey units, reference periods, modes of classifying by economic activities (register/description given by the respondents), principles of territorial treatment (by place of work/by place of living) also influenced on the comparability of results from the surveys.

Coherence with registered unemployment data

The main methodological differences between the LFS data on unemployment and data on registered unemployment provided by National Employment Agency are the following:

• According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition applied in Labour force survey unemployed are considered not only and not all persons, registered in employment offices, but also those who are looking for job using other active methods: by private employment agencies, direct application to employers, assistance from friends or relatives, placing, answering or studying job advertisements in newspapers, magazines. The registration itself is not regarded as active method but the contact with an employment agency with a purpose to find job.
• The age at which persons could be considered as unemployed is 15 - 74 years for Labour force survey and 16 - 64 years for registered unemployed. In contrast to registered unemployed students and pensioners are considered as unemployed in LFS if are actively looking and available for work.

The data on economically active population used as denominator for the calculation of unemployment rate is different - in LFS economically active population consists of employed and unemployed which number is estimated through the same survey while for calculation of registered unemployment rate Population Census data for economically active population is used.

Some of the totals (rows and columns) in tables are not equal to the sum of the components because of the rounding of figures.

The average duration of LFS interview is about 15 minutes per person. The individual duration of an interview depends on the labour status of person and survey wave.

Revisions of previously released data are usually not performed. By exception revisions may happen after new estimates of population from a Population Census became available.

Due to availability of population estimates based on 2011 Population Census and changes in LFS weighting procedure revised LFS data for 2010 and 2011 are produced and published at the NSI website.

Source of data is Labour force survey, carried out over a sample of 19.6 thousand households.

Quarterly. Annual data are calculated as an average of the four quarters of the year.

Data are collected through paper questionnaire and personal interview with persons (aged 15 or over) from the selected households.

Plausibility checks are performed during the data entry. Additional consistency checks are carried out before publishing of data.

The filled in questionnaires are coded (for economic activity, occupation, place of work, field of education etc.) and entered into computer in NSI regional offices. Data files are sent to NSI, where additional control and weighting is doing. Data are aggregated by different variables (characteristics), tabulated and disseminated.

Not applied