Azerbaijan to hold Second National Labour Force Survey

Baku, 17 January 2006 - State Statistics Committee (SSC) and Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population (MLSPP) in cooperation with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UNDP held an introductory seminar on the Second Labour Force Survey (LFS) in Azerbaijan at special ceremony at the Committee this morning. The working seminar brought together representatives of various governmental structures involved in labour, employment and socio-economic issues and concerned UN agencies to discuss the preparation for the Second LFS.

Deputy Chairman of the State Statistics Committee Mr. Agadadash Mammadov announced in his welcoming remarks that the Committee will be holding the Second Labour Force Survey in Azerbaijan in April-June 2006. It will help update information on several parameters of the existing labour force in the country including data on employment and unemployment. Recalling that UNDP and ILO supported Azerbaijan in holding the first such survey in 2003, he said the UNDP Azerbaijan expressed the intention to assist the Government in conducting the exercise again. The second gender-disaggregated and countrywide LFS will be funded by the joint project of MLSPP and UNDP.

The 2003 Labour Force Survey greatly contributed to the preparation of the National Employment Strategy, said Mr. Vahab Mammadov, Head of the Labour Policy Department in the MLSPP. For example, the first survey revealed that youth constituted 61% of the unemployed population in the country which meant that the National Strategy would have a special focus on the youth employment. "There cannot be a correct policy without correct data", he underlined. According to him, the new survey to be held in 2006 will help to get updated information on the labour force status, including unemployment. He stressed that holding such surveys should be an essential function of the Government and should become a regular practice even without international assistance.

A former ILO staff, now international consultant on the second LFS Prof. Michael Hopkins made a presentation on the concept and methodology of LFS in general, sources of labour force data, definitions, major findings of LFS held in 2003 and expectations from the 2006 survey. According to him, it was important to ensure the comparability of the second LFS with the 2003 one. Speaking on the uses of labour force survey, Prof. Hopkins noted that in Azerbaijan the new jobs should come from the non-oil sector and SMEs which makes it important to focus on two areas: credits for SMEs and massive skill formation. UNDP's "Converting Black Gold into Human Gold" Project could contribute to this end, he stressed.

The LFS 2003 held among more than 17,000 households in 87 administrative districts and towns of Azerbaijan revealed that the unemployment rate in Azerbaijan was 10.7%. Other major findings of the first survey presented by ILO experts included the gender disparity where the ratio of employed men is higher than that of women in all age groups.

The participants discussed the sample questionnaire to be used by interviewers in the second LFS. They made technical and conceptual suggestions to the questionnaire which is expected to gather information not only on the economic activity of the labour force in Azerbaijan, but also on the needs for decent labour and skills development.


For more information contact:
Ms. Gyulshan Rzayeva
Senior Development Adviser
Tel.: +99412 498 98 88 (ext.110)