Monthly Employment Survey (Old Methodology)
Methodological Notes
REVISION OF THE MONTHLY EMPLOYMENT SURVEY PROJECT
The Monthly Employment Survey (PME), implemented in 1980, investigates the situation of labor for the working-age population in six metropolitan regions.
Major changes in the Brazilian workplace justified a complete revision of the survey in terms of methodology and procedures.
The purpose of the revision is to characterize workers and their insertion in the productive system more accurately in order to provide adequate information for the formulation and monitoring of public policies.
The concepts and methodology followed the recommendations of the International Labor Organization (ILO) to establish international comparability.
The thematic coverage was enlarged with the purpose of ensuring the quality and feasibility of monthly results. The geographical coverage, however, remained the same: Recife, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Porto Alegre (considering their administrative political composition in 2000).
The key concept of the survey is still that of labor: the economic activity with compensation by money, products or other non-monetary forms and the economic activity with no compensation. The only changes concerning that concept were the alteration of the time for works with no compensation (from 15 hours to 1 hour) and the requirement of a minimum of 1 hour of work for works with compensation, in accordance with the recommendations of the International Conferences of Labor Statisticians, promoted by ILO.
The concept of employed population, therefore, includes people who had a job in the week previous to the survey interview, that is, those who had a boss, those who were self-employed and those who worked with no compensation, helping relatives. It does not include those who were away from their works with compensation for long periods of time in the reference week. The new survey classifies the employed population in four categories: employees, self-employed, employers and people who work with no compensation, helping relatives. By showing work relationships more clearly, the survey enables the distinction of different types of employees, which allows for the identification of employment in the public and private sectors and in domestic services with compensation.
On the other hand, the unemployed population corresponds to people who did not have a work and were looking for a job in a certain reference period of time. It also includes people who are willing to start working in the reference week - an aspect that was not considered in the old survey.
Both the employed and unemployed populations are included in the concept of Labor Force (Economically Active Population – PEA).
Those excluded from this concept are classified as non-economically active (inactive). As a result, IBGE still separates the working-age population in three different subsets: employed, unemployed and inactive. Detailed information concerning the dynamics of the workplace is provided for each subset.
Concerning the employed population, the new survey estimates subemployment due to insufficient hours of work (people with less than 40 hours worked and who are willing to work more), employed people looking for a job, number of hours actually and usually worked and income usually and actually earned.
As for the unemployed population, the survey investigates the previous work in the last year, considering the reason for leaving.
Regarding inactive people, the new survey identifies the people who were connected to PEA in the last year, who want a job and are willing to start one in the short-term (people marginally-connected to PEA). Those in this group that did not look for a job in the reference period of 30 days, believing they would not get one for market reasons, but had been looking for a job for a period of six months, and were willing to start working, are classified as discouraged.
For further information, there are supplementary surveys involving long-term investigation.
The primary data, in the new survey, is obtained from respondents in their housing units by means of assisted personal interviews through portable computers with a specific program of data input.
Particularly, the updating of PME raises a contradiction between the methodological advances and the maintenance of time comparability. As ruptures are not desired in general, we attempted to implement the indicators used in the previous measurements in the new formulation. However, keeping the same indicators in a new context does not mean keeping comparability. In fact, the implementation of a new methodology means a rupture with the previous series. Therefore, we are committed to measuring the effects of the changes. The surveys are being conducted simultaneously for the purpose of analyzing and explaining the results of change for a period of 12 months.
Before the release of the indicators of the new survey, IBGE will present a comparative analysis between both series. It will start releasing the new series of indicators alone as of January 2003.
In addition to the current indicators, others will be formulated to analyze the situation of employment and inactivity more accurately. Presently, the survey includes people aged 10 or over but releases indicators relative to people aged 15 or over. The minimum age for the new data release will be 10 years.
The new indicators of the survey must be interpreted as a complement of the parameters existing today for the evaluation of the workplace.
DPE – DIRECTORATE OF SURVEYS
DEREN – DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT AND INCOME
GEPEM – COORDINATION OF MONTHLY SURVEY