Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) will use telephonic data collection for its Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the second quarter.

The lockdown and progression of the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the discontinuation of face-to-face data collection on March 19.

Further to this, Stats SA’s executive committee took a decision to suspend face-to-face data collection after the lockdown is lifted.

Data collection will, therefore, be done telephonically, using the Computer Assisted Telephonic Interview (CATI) methodology.

The delay in the start of data collection, resulting from the extension of the national lockdown, will result in a delay in the publication of the QLFS for the second quarter.

The last two weeks of data collection for the first-quarter QLFS were disrupted owing to discontinued fieldwork.

The methodology used to compensate for the disruption will form part of the first-quarter report, the release of which has been postponed to June 9. 

The General Household Survey, Domestic Tourism Survey, the Governance, Public Safety and Justice Survey and the Income and Expenditure Survey will transition to a mixed mode of collection, which includes the use of face-to-face as well as CATI and Computer Aided Web Interview (CAWI) modes.

Consequently, these surveys and their related publications will be delayed while Stats SA develops and tests CATI and CAWI systems.

Publication of monthly administrative series such as the Tourism and Migration series will be delayed.

“As we transition to mixed-mode data collection we commit to always doing everything in line with the principles of official statistics to ensure that data released are of good quality and can be used to inform the nation with the greatest possible level of confidence,” the organisation said.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Stats SA is conducting a series of online qualitative surveys to gauge the impact of the pandemic on the population. The first wave focused on health behaviour and perceptions, the results of which will be released shortly.

The questionnaire for the second wave, which focuses on socioeconomic and labour market issues, as well as hunger and social relief, is now available.

This information will be used by government to better understand the impact of the pandemic, and to devise interventions to assist the population.

Responses are anonymous and no personal information will be recorded. The survey can be completed using the following link:  http://uss.statssa.gov.za/WebInterview/SPZZQA2C/Start.