Towards more frequent surveys: Employment data could appear monthly | Economic news

The use of evidence-based data to formulate economic policies is crucial in the governance process. To this end, the administration is trying to increase the frequency of surveys.

Increasing the frequency of surveys helps the government get a more detailed picture of the situation on the ground and adapt policies accordingly. (Photo: Unsplash)

Whether it’s employment or household data, the government is trying to make policymaking more relevant to reality. Increasing the frequency of economic policy-making surveys allows the government to take a more focused and detailed approach, and the government is therefore trying to find ways to shorten the time between two surveys, enabling the administration to adopt policies that are more responsive to the situation on the ground. The Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation is continuously analyzing scenarios to adopt technology to facilitate more evidence-based policy formulation, said Statistics Secretary Saurabh Garg.

“The use of technology is something we will continue to focus on as we continue to advance. This is to ensure that the survey intervals are shortened,” Garg noted on June 19 while speaking at a seminar titled “Household Consumer Expenditure Survey (HCES) Data Users Conference 2022-2023.”

Why is it so important?

Incidentally, the Household Consumer Expenditure Survey is conducted once every five years by the Central Statistical Office.

The data collected in this study is extremely important because it is used to calculate poverty rates and the Consumer Price Index. It also contributes to the calculation of gross domestic product (GDP).

Interviewers engaged for this purpose collect data on the consumption of various goods and services by households.

Incidentally, monthly per capita household expenditure was calculated based on 2011-12 prices.

The surveys the government plans to increase in frequency are the Household Consumer Expenditure Survey (HCES) and the Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS). While HCES is conducted once every five years, PLFS is conducted once every three months.

Whether PLFS can be conducted once a month is one of the issues being considered by the administration. Reducing the HCES gap is also being considered, as currently five years is enough time for household consumption patterns to change completely.

PLFS is extremely important as it helps the government understand the parameters of employment and unemployment. It helps the government understand key issues such as how many people are looking for work, what the unemployment rate is, and what the percentage of the population is working. The government may modify the policy depending on the results of the study.

Increasing the frequency of these datasets would help the government take a deeper look and adapt policy to the situation on the ground.

Using technology

The Secretary for Statistics also announced that the ministry had abandoned surveys completed with pen and paper. Their staff carry devices such as tablets because in-person interviews are conducted using computers.

One of the main reasons for using tablets is the ability to transfer data collected in the field to the system immediately after collection, which reduces processing time. One of the goals of every survey is to complete it quickly, i.e. shorten the time between conducting the survey and processing the data and preparing the results.

The chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), Bibek Debroy, also spoke during the event.