National Statistical Institute

Labour Force Statistics Department

Tsveta Kostova-Sevastiyanova

Head of department

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

[email protected]

(+359 2) 9857 619

Main results from the Labour force survey ad-hoc module on employment of disabled people.

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. In 2011 an ad-hoc module on disabled people was incorporated in the regular Labour force survey.

The classifications applied in the Labour Force Survey are harmonised with the international classifications in terms of economic activities, occupations, educational attainment. The main classifications used are the following:

· International Standard Classification of Education, 1997 version (ISCED 1997);

· 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 1 January 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 by the Labour force survey. The target population for the ad-hoc module "Employment on disabled people" consists of persons aged 15 - 64 years.

The Labour Force Survey provides estimates of 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 results from the 2011 module allows to estimate:

• The number of persons with health problems and difficulties in basic activities (difficulties in seeing, hearing, walking, etc.);
• The number of persons with limitations in work caused by health problems/difficulties in basic activities;
• Special assistance needed or used by people with health problems/difficulties in basic activities;
• Limitations in work because of other reasons (family/care responsibilities, lack of qualification/experience, lack of transport etc.).

Persons

Total population usually residing in Bulgaria, except persons living in collective households. The ad-hoc module "Employment on disabled people" refers to population aged 15 - 64 years.

The whole territory of Republic of Bulgaria.

2011

Not applicable.

Number of persons - in thousands

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:

· Recommendation 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;

· Commission Regulation (EC) No 317/2010 of 16 April 2010 adopting the specifications of the 2011 ad-hoc module on employment of disabled people for the labour force sample survey provided for by Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98;

· 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)) (OJ 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.

Individual anonymised 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.

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.

Data are published according to the Release Calendar presenting the results of the statistical surveys carried out by the National Statistical Institute. The main results from the LFS ad-hoc module on employment of disabled people 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" 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.

Once

Press release for the main results from the ad-hoc module "Employment of disabled people" is posted on the NSI website: http://www.nsi.bg/en according to the Release Calendar.

Not applicable.

The main results from the ad-hoc module "Employment of disabled people" are available for all users at the NSI website section "Labour Market", Labour Force Survey http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/6512

Individual anonymised micro-data could be provided for scientific research purposes by individual request according to the Rules for provision of anonymised individual data for scientific and research purposes.

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

· Methodology of Labour force survey:

http://www.nsi.bg/sites/default/files/files/metadata/LFS_Methodology_EN.pdf

· Interviewers' instructions for the ad-hoc module "Employment of disabled people"

Not published.

Ensuring the quality of Labour Force Survey and its modules is according to the policy and Quality Management Programme of NSI. NSI follows the Action plan for implementation of Recommendation of Eurostat Task Force for quality improvement of Labour Force Survey.

Quality report on the Labour Force Survey is prepared each year. Quality report on the 2011 ad-hoc module on employment of disabled people is also prepared in line with Eurostat requirements.

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 reseasches and consultancy activities.

Not available.

The ad-hoc module "Employment of disabled people" covers all compulsory variables according Commission Regulation (EC) No 317/2010 of 16 April 2010 adopting the specifications of the 2011 ad-hoc module on employment of disabled people.

The sample used for the Labour Force Survey is a two-stage stratified cluster sample which includes quarterly about 19.5 thousand households (representing about 0.65% sampling rate).
The ad-hoc module on disabled people was carried out over a part (25%) of LFS sample in each quarter and consisted of the households from the third wave. 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), 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 non-response rate for the ad-hoc module "Employment of disabled people" is 2.7% (from persons responded in regular LFS).

Generally the main results from the LFS ad-hoc modules are published about 4-5 months after the reference year.

The results from the ad-hoc module "Employment of disabled people" were presented on 15 May 2012, according to the Release Calendar presenting the results of the statistical surveys carried out by the National Statistical Institute.

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

Not applicable.

Not available.

Some of the totals (rows and columns) in tables could slightly differ from the sum of the components because of the rounding of figures.

The average duration of interview on the ad-hoc module is about 10 minutes.

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.

Revised micro-data on 2011 ad-hoc module (due to the new population estimates based on 2011 Census and changes in weighting procedure) were provided to Eurostat. Consequently the data from the ad-hoc module published by Eurostat could slightly differ from the published national data.

Ad-hoc module integrated with the Labour force survey.

Once

Data are collected through paper questionnaire and personal interview with persons (aged 15 - 64) from the selected households.

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

The completed 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 applicable.