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The 2012 Employment Status Survey Outline of the Survey

1. Purpose of the Survey

The Employment Status Survey aims to obtain basic data on the actual conditions of the employment structure at both national and regional levels by surveying usual labour force status in Japan.

2. History of the Survey

The Employment Status Survey has been conducted every three years between 1956 and 1982 and every five years since 1982, the 2012 Employment Status Survey will be the sixteenth one.

This survey, Fundamental Statisticsis stipulated by the statistics Act (Act No.53, 2007), is undertaken in accordance with the Ordinance for the Employment Status Survey (Ordinance No.25 of the Prime Minister's Office, 1982).

4. Coverage of the Survey

In the designated enumeration districts, this survey was conducted on household members 15 years old or more in approximately 470,000 households living in sampled units (a unit is defined as a building or part of building capable of housing one household). These units are selected by the mayors of cities, the mayors of towns and village heads in the manner prescribed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
The following persons however were excluded from the enumeration.

A. Foreign diplomatic corps or consular staff (including their suite and their family members)
B. Foreign military personnel or civilians (including their family members)
C. Persons dwelling in camps or ships of the Self-Defense Forces
D. Persons serving sentences in prisons or detention houses
E. Inmates of reformatory institutions or women's guidance homes

5. Sampling Method

In this survey, a stratified two-stage sampling method was adopted with the Enumeration Districts of the 2010 Population Census (abbreviated as ED hereafter) as the first-stage sampling units, and dwellings as the second-stage sampling units.
At the first-stage, about 32 thousand sampled EDs are selected from all over the country in random sampling.
At the second-stage, about 470,000 dwellings are selected from among households living in the sample districts by a random sampling.
All household members aged fifteen or older living in the selected dwellings in sample EDs are enumerated.

(1)Sampling of EDs(first-stage sampling)

A. Sample EDs for this survey were selected from among all EDs in the country, except for the following:
a. districts with mountains, forests or fields;
b. districts with prisons or detention houses etc;
c. districts of the Self-Defense Forces;
d. districts of foreign military forces;
e. water districts;

B. In each city, ward, town or village, all EDs were stratified according to population by industry etc.
In each stratum of each city, ward, town or village, a sample of EDs was selected by sampling with varying probabilities from the accumulated populations.

(2)Sampling of dwellings (second-stage sampling)

Sample dwellings were systematically selected by using a random starting number and a sampling interval based on the "list of all dwellings", in the sample ED, which has approximately 50 households on average.

6. Items surveyed

Items surveyed included the following.

(1)Items related to household members 15 years old or more

A. All household members
Name, sex, marital status, relationship to the head of your household, month and year of birth, educational status e.g. school attendance, year of graduation, type of school, when started living at present address, reason for changing address, address before changing address, type of income sources, usual labour force status, whether doing any training or self-development, type of training or self-development, whether providing childcare, whether used childcare leave or other support system, kind of childcare leave system, etc., whether providing family care, whether used family care leave or other support system, kind of family care leave system, etc., whether been affected own main job at the time by impact of great east japan earthquake, whether evacuated, present situation of evacuation and address at the time of the earthquake.

B. Persons engaged in work
a) Main job
Employment status, type of employment at place of work, whether start a business of your own or not, employed with or without a definite contract term and a term per contract, number of renewals of employment contract, type of legal organization at place of work, name of place of work, contents of business at place of work, contents of work, number of persons engaged in enterprise, days worked per year, regularity of work, working hours per week, income, when took up the job, whether wishing to change the present job etc.; or to have an additional job, whether wishing to extend working hours, etc.; reason for wishing to change the present job, status of job wished to take, whether seeking a job, wish for working hours, labour force status a year ago, and whether had a job.

b) Second job
Employment status and contents of business at place of work.

c) Previous job
When left the previous job, duration engaged in work (years and months), reason for leaving the previous job, employment status, type of employment at place of work, contents of business at place of work, contents of work, relationship between present job or previous job and "first job", timing of the opening for "first job", and employment status and type of employment for "first job".

C. Persons not engaged in work

a) Wish for work, etc.
Whether wishing to work, reason for wishing to work, kind of job wished to take, status of job wished to take, whether seeking a job, reason for not seeking a job, duration of seeking a job, intention to take up a job, reason for not wishing to work, labour force status a year ago, and whether had working experience.

b) Previous job
When left the previous job, duration engaged in work (years and months), reason for leaving the previous job, employment status, type of employment at place of work, contents of business at place of work, contents of the work, relationship between present / previous job and "first job", timing of getting "first job", and employment status and type of employment for "first job".

(2)Items related to households

Number of household members less than 15 years old, annual income of household as a whole, and number of household members 15 years old or more.

7. Date of the Survey

The survey is taken as of 0:00 a.m. on October 1, 2012.

8. Method of the Survey

(1)Survey channel

The survey is conducted through the following channel;
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) - prefectures - cities, towns and villages - statistical surveyors.

(2)Statistical surveyors

A. Following instructions on implementation of the survey issued by the mayors of cities, the mayors of towns and village heads, the statistical surveyors distribute and collect questionnaires pertaining to households within their assigned EDs, prepare relevant documents and perform other associated work.

B. Irrespective of the procedures described in A, statistical surveyors designated by prefectural governors (hereafter referred to as "Supervisors"), extend guidance to statistical surveyors (excluding the Supervisors, and hereafter referred to "Enumerators"), examine questionnaires and other relevant documents, and perform other associated work(hereafter referred to "Enumerator's work"), following instructions on implementation of the survey issued by the mayors of cities, the mayors of towns and village heads.

C. Irrespective of the procedures described in A and B, if for a particular reason the Enumerator(s) can not perform part of the work described in A, the Supervisor(s) perform this work in the manner prescribe by mayors of cities and towns and village heads.

(3)Method of the survey

For the survey, Enumerators (including Supervisors performing part of the work of the Enumerators as described in (2)-C, hereafter referred to as "Enumerators, etc.") distribute questionnaires to each household to be surveyed and collect the completed questionnaires, and conduct Q&A sessions with the households.

(4)Method of response

Response to the questionnaires is through completion of questionnaires by household members 15 years old or more, or by the head of the household surveyed, as well as by answering questions from the Enumerators, etc.
In addition, in the EDs designated by the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, households can fill in the questionnaires with the use of electric information processing system connected the computer of MIC and their computers with telecommunication line.

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