Samoa's third labour force survey which is collecting data on Samoa's job market, including the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic is underway and will be completed in April.

The Samoa Bureau of Statistics (S.B.S.) is leading the labour force survey (L.F.S.), which is being supported by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in partnership with the Asian Development Bank. The Ministry of Commerce Industry and Labour is also providing technical assistance to the survey through design, collection, microdata cleaning, and analysis of the final report.

The first L.F.S. covered the period 2012–2017 with the second one covering the period 2017–2022. The current and third L.F.S. is for the period 2022 to 2027. The survey currently underway started in September last year with kicked off with the designing of the questionnaires, along with the enumerator manual, sampling, coding and survey solutions.

The current L.F.S. also includes new sections that will cover the impact of Covid-19, as suggested by the Manila-based ADB as well as the inclusion of child labour. With the S.B.S. leading this survey, the ILO Office is providing technical support to ensure it aligns, not only with ILO standards but also meet Sustainable Development Goals (S.D.G.) indicators through relevant and timely market information for reporting.

The Samoa L.F.S. is an important household survey conducted every five years. It provides statistics of work, employment, and labour underutilisation. In addition, the survey also gathers labour market information such as working population numbers, employment and unemployment rates and other labour market details of the situation in Samoa.

Its main objectives are to strengthen the technical and institutional capacity of Samoa in the regular gathering and analysis of labour market data, and to meet SDG decent work indicators through the implementation of the L.F.S. 

This is crucial information required by Government and stakeholders for policy decisions, particularly in light of stimulus packages to businesses and workers in the period between pre-pandemic economic conditions through to national Covid-19 lock-downs and the eventual reopening of international borders.

The total cost of the third L.F.S. is SAT$302,000 with the ILO contributed SAT$51,000 with the A.D.B. paying the balance. The ILO continues to work with the S.B.S. and the MCIL to provide technical assistance. The Implementation Agreement (IA) for ILO was signed by the Minister of Finance, Mulipola Anarosa Ale Molio’o and the Director of the ILO Pacific Office, Matin Karimli who also emphasised their support for the labour market survey.