Stats SA delays release of employment figures, again

Statistics South Africa has announced a second delay of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the second quarter.

This follows the implementation of a new method of collecting data, which was imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its office suspended its fieldwork and face-to-face methods of conducting questionnaires following lockdown in March as part of measures to deal with coronavirus outbreak.

“We got our fieldworkers off the field, re-organised our operations, and introduced the Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing method,” says Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke.

Earlier this month, Stats SA announced the initial delay of the release for the survey.

Maluleke says additional data confrontation and analysis, based on historical data, needs to be done before the Quarter 2 data for this year can be published.

“This process is taking longer than anticipated, and has resulted in additional delays to the publication date. The QLFS Q2 2020 results will therefore be published before the end of September 2020,” says Maluleke.

Stats SA says it acknowledges the importance of this dataset, particularly in light of the impact of COVID-19 on employment. “It is for this reason that we are taking particular care to ensure that the data that we release meets international standards. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this delay is causing to the QLFS data users.”

[Media Statement] #StatsSA regrets to announce a further delay in the release of the QLFS Q2:2020 results. pic.twitter.com/Ux6OcecZJy

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) August 30, 2020