XN000022-1997-04-23 — Page 43

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Reply:

(c)

(d)

(a)

(b)

whether the unemployment figures in narrow terms (Ul) and the unemployment figures in broad terms (U2, i.e. with persons wishing to find employment among the economically inactive population taken into account) will be released on a regular basis, so that the public can have a better understanding of the actual employment situation; and

whether the Government will carry out studies on the employment situation and the quality of life of the low-income groups in the territory?

Results of certain surveys on labour force and unemployment conducted recently by some academic institutions and non-government organizations showed that there were considerable discrepancies between their findings and the official unemployment statistics

The Government.

Census and published by the

Statistics Department(C&SD), as the department responsible for compiling official statistics,is naturally interested in these surveys and would like to obtain more details on their methodology and various technical details, because the validity of survey findings hinges crucially upon the methodology used. Nonetheless, such details were often not provided in the survey reports. Also, they could not be readily obtained from the researchers concerned even upon our enquiry. This is the case for the recent survey conducted by the three academic researchers. Thus, in the absence of sufficient information, at the present moment it is difficult for us to provide precise comments on these surveys and their results.

The population can be divided into two sub-groups according to their economic activity status, viz. the labour force and the economically inactive population.

The labour force comprises the employed population and the unemployed population.

The employed population comprises all employed persons. In the General Household Survey (GHS), a person aged 15 or over who was at work for pay/profit or has had formal job attachment during the 7 days before enumeration is classified as employed.