Measuring recruitment costs of migrant workers through household surveys: Results of a pilot test from Lao PDR labour force survey 2017

Lao PDR implemented its second national labour force survey (LFS) in September 2017. The survey included a module testing the measurement of international labour migration, return migrants, and absentees, as well as recruitment costs of migrant workers. Results of this pilot process are presented in this paper.

Lao PDR implemented its 2nd national labour force survey (LFS) in September 2017. The survey included a module testing the measurement of international labour migration, return migrants, and absentees, as well as recruitment costs of migrant workers. The module was meant to contribute to methodological work for the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicator 10.7.1 on “Recruitment cost borne by employee as a proportion of monthly income earned in country of destination”.

The indicator is currently considered as Tier II in the SDG Global Indicator Framework, with a new measurement methodology not yet broadly implemented by countries. The pilot process in Lao PDR LFS 2017 was done before the methodological work on this indicator was completed. Results of this pilot process are presented in this paper. The main data used in this analysis are those on return migrant workers: there were 52,600 return migrant workers in Lao PDR in 2017, representing only 0.7 per cent of the total population, and their average recruitment costs were estimated at USD141, i.e. one third of the monthly salary during the last job abroad.