Rwanda - Rwanda Labor Force Survey

The sample design of the Labor force survey is a two-stage stratified design according to which at the first stage of sampling, a stratified sample of enumeration areas from the latest population census is drawn with probabilities proportional to size measured in terms of the census number of households or census number of household members, and at the second stage of sampling, a fixed number of sample of households is selected with equal probability within each sample enumeration areas. Finally, all household members in the sample households are selected for survey interviewing.

The application of this principle leads to a sample size requirement of 18,691 households for measuring annual unemployment with margin of errors of +/- 0.3% at 95% confidence level. In these calculations, the main indicator is the ratio of unemployment to the working age population, set at r=0.024 according to the 2012 population census of Rwanda. The design effect (deff) is set at 3, within the range of values (3 to 4) generally used for labour force surveys. The margin of errors (ME = 0.0026) is twice the standard error of the estimate.20Similar calculations for employment gave a sample size requirement of 18,792 households. Because the sample size should be a multiple of 2x4x16 for two survey rounds per year, four rotation groups per round and 16 sample households per Primary Sampling Unit (PSU), the required annual sample size has been rounded to 18688 households. For the August 2017 round, the sample size was therefore set at Sample size of LFS August 2017 = 18688/2 = 9344 households.

The next step in sample design was the selection of the 584 sample enumeration areas. The sample was drawn in each district by probability proportional to size (pps) from the sampling frame. In practice, the sample of enumeration areas was selected from the start for an entire sequence of 18 survey rounds from August 2016 to August 2023 when in principle a new sampling frame constructed on the basis of the next population and housing census will become available. The selected sample was then assigned randomly to 18 rotation groups. Sample enumeration areas in rotation groups R1 to R4 formed the sample for LFS August 2016. The sample of enumeration areas assigned to rotation groups R3 to R6 were used for LFS August 2017. The sample enumeration areas assigned to R4 to R7 will be used for LFS February 2018, and so on. The same process will continue on each round with the addition of one rotation group per round. The sample enumeration areas were freshly listed prior to selection of the final sample of households. According to the sample design, 16 sample households were selected from the list of households in each sample enumeration area by systematic sampling with equal probability. If the list contained 16 households or less all households in the sample enumeration area were drawn in the sample. If the list contained more than 16 households, a sample of fixed size (16 households) was drawn from the list by systematic random sampling.
Regarding the sample weights, three steps were involved in the calculation of the sample weights are: Calculation of the design weight, Adjustment for non-response; and Calibration to known population projections


The response rate for labor force survey 2017 is 98.4%


The data was weighted and benchmarked to the Rwanda labor force survey 2017.