TORTOLA, British Virgin Islands, CMC – The British Virgin Islands (BVI) is for the first time in its history conducting a Labour Force Survey (LFS).
The survey is being conducted in collaboration with the St. Lucia-based Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission.
The project is being supported by the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) under the Economic Integration and Trade of the OECS region.
The project seeks to contribute to the establishment of the OECS Economic Union as a single economic and financial space through the development of a harmonized policy, legislative, regulatory and administrative framework, and the enhancement of the institutional capacity and export competitiveness of OECS economies.
Director of the Central Statistics Office here, Raymond Phillips, said the main objectives of the LFS are to divide the working-age population into three mutually exclusive classifications and to provide descriptive and explanatory information on each of these classifications, especially the unemployed.
The survey data is used to produce unemployment rates, as well as other standard labour market indicators such as the employment rate. It also provides employment estimates by industry, public and private sectors, occupation and hours worked.
The LFS is a household survey, with data collected from a sample of households throughout the Territory. The data collected from the month long survey will be collated in a format that presents information about the economic activities of the entire population, officials here said.
The OECS groups the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts-Nevis, Montserrat, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands.
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