ISLAMABAD, Sept 24: The Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) has initiated the Labour Force Survey (LFS) 2005-06 to assess labour force in the market. FBS Secretary Asad Elahi, in a statement issued on Friday, said the survey would cover urban and rural areas of Pakistan and compile data on quarterly basis of employment/unemployment figures in an improved format.

To ensure the collection of accurate data with reasonable reliability, the staff was given comprehensive training, the secretary added.

Monitoring is underway to keep the process on the track, he said, adding that LFS 2005-06 report for a quarter will be available by the end of the next quarter while the annual report by January 2007 depicting detailed national and provincial indicators with rural and urban breakup on the basis of labour force characteristics collected from representative samples of about 36,000 households.

Mr Elahi said the first quarter (July-September 2005) of the LFS 2005-06 was almost over 90 per cent which was well ahead of the target. Concomitantly, other activities are proceeding in tabular profile of the quarter, he added.

Elaborating further, he said the range of data includes age, sex, marital status, literacy, level of education and migration of the population, dimensions of the country’s labour force, such as employed labour force classified by industry, formal and informal sectors, occupation, employment status, hours worked and level of education; occupational safety and health information of the employed persons and unemployed labour by level of education and experience.