Better labour market information systems in Tanzania

DAR ES SALAAM (ILO News) – The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MOLE) of Tanzania, and the ILO Country Office in Dar es Salaam recently highlighted key findings from the 2014 Employment and Earnings Survey (EES).

The new factsheets present factual results based on the generation of statistical tables, analysis of the findings and policy implications. The Employment and Earnings Surveys (EES) are conducted annually and they cover three main categories of formal employing establishments in both private and public sectors.

The ILO is supporting the government to develop a labour market information system (LMIS) in order to track key labour market indicators, which is critical for monitoring and evaluating the progress made in the realization of decent work.

The ILO is supporting the strengthening of the institutional frameworks for LMIS at national and regional level in Mainland and Zanzibar. This includes the designing of the database, including modules for collection and analysis of gender-disaggregated data. The ILO provided financial and technical assistance to recruit consultants, who will work closely with the MOLE in developing the LMIS Guidelines, resources plans, and reporting on labour market trends. Efforts were put in place to ensure closer collaboration between the Ministries of Labour and the Central Statistical Offices.

Employment and Earning Surveys (EES)

EES are aimed at providing information relating to status of employment and earnings in the formal sector and labour market indicators for use in policy formulation, planning and estimating the contribution of various sectors to GDP.

According to the latest EES, there is an increase in total employment in the formal sector from 1,276,982 in 2010 to 2,141,351 employees in 2014 and that the private formal sector accounted for nearly 65 percent of total employment in the same period.

The EES are the only source of information at regional level on distribution of income, newly recruited workers, job vacancies, annual status of Employment and Earnings as well as data on the socio-economic characteristics of the labour market.

As policy implementation is done at lower administrative levels, such as district and regions, the need for timely, reliable and accurate regional/districts statistics remains critical. The Integrated Labour Force Surveys (ILFS) which are conducted after every five years cannot meet the needs at regional or district level; therefore the EES are conducted on annual basis to help fill the gap.

The National Bureau of Statistics in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Employment with financial support from ILO plans to disseminate the survey results next month to various users including workers’ and employers’ organizations to ensure correct interpretation and use of the data.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment, through technical and financial support from the ILO, has established a web-based labour market information system with modules for job seekers and employers and skills development. The system allows job seekers and employers to access job vacancies and profiles of job seekers respectively.