Expert Group Meeting, Cairo, 14 December 2019

1. DATA AVAILABILITY FOR MEASURING LM
OUTCOMES
INSIGHTS FROM EGYPT
Expert Group Meeting, Cairo, 14 December 2019

2. OUTLINE
➤Main Data Sources
➤Availability of data by 6 main categories of LM outcomes
1. Labor Underutilization
2. Type of Employment
3. Regularity of Employment and Working Time
4. Earnings and Nonwage Benefits
5. Social Protection
6. Safety and Health at Work
7. Industrial Relations
➤Main Challenges

3. MAIN DATA SOURCES
➤ Labor Market data sources
➤ Quarterly Labor Force Surveys - Micro data are available
annually (ERF data portal LFS 2006-2017)
➤ Egypt Labor Market Panel Surveys (1988, 1998, 2006, 2012
and 2018) - micro data available (ERF data portal)
➤ Employment Wages and Hours of Work (formal establishments
with 10+ employees)
➤ Secondary data source:
➤ Household Income and Expenditure Surveys (1999/2000,
2004/05, 2008/09, 2010/11, 2012/13, 2015, and 2017/18) partial
micro data are available (ERF data portal)

4. 1. LABOR UNDERUTILIZATION
➤ Discouraged job seekers ELMPS 1998-2018 and LFS 2007-2017 ✔
➤ Both ELMPS and LFS include questions related to availability and search for
work
➤ NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) ✔ partial measure ELMPS 1998-
2018 & LFS 2000-2017
➤ ELMPS and LFS do not take into account current time spent in training
➤ problem identifying men in military service in particular in LFS
➤ Time-related Underemployment ELMPS 1998-2018 and LFS 2007-2017 ✔
➤ ELMPS: reason for working less than 35 hrs/week
➤ LFS 2007-2017: questions have varied across rounds
➤ Part-time Employment (<35 hrs/week) ELMPS 1998-2018 and LFS ✔
➤ Potential Labor Force X
➤ Individuals not working, seeking work but not available for work cannot be
estimated by ELMPS or LFS

5. 2 & 3. TYPE OF EMPLOYMENT AND
REGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT ✔
➤ Proportion in public sector (government, public enterprise) ELMPS 1998-2018 and
LFS 2000-2017✔
➤ Proportion in formal/informal wage employment (defined by presence/absence of
contract and social insurance) ELMPS 1998-2018 and LFS 2007-2017 ✔
➤ Proportion in own account work (employer / self employed) ELMPS 1998-2018 and
LFS 2000-2017 ✔
➤ Proportion in unpaid family work ELMPS 1998-2018 and LFS 2000-2017 ✔
➤ Regularity of employment (permanent, temporary, casual/intermittent, seasonal)
ELMPS 1998-2018 and LFS 2000-2017 ✔
➤ Working time ELMPS 1998-2018 and LFS 2000 & 2003-2017 ✔

6. 4. EARNINGS AND NON-WAGE BENEFITS
(1/2)➤Hourly and monthly earnings (nominal or real) ELMPS 1998-2018 ✔
➤ELMPS: basic wage, incentives, bonuses, overtime, share of profits by
pay period
➤LFS 2008-2017: total net wages per pay period and the average daily
wage. But less reliable data (less detailed and not necessarily
individual answer)
➤Employment Wage and Hours of Work Survey (establishments with
10+ employees): aggregated average wages by occupation and
education
➤HIECS: info on earnings but not hourly earnings
➤Non-wage benefits
➤Paid vacations: ELMPS 1998-2018 ✔ LFS 2012
➤Paid sick leave: ELMPS 1998-2018 ✔ LFS 2012
➤Health insurance: ELMPS 1998-2018 and LFS 2010-2017✔

7. 4. EARNINGS AND NON-WAGE
BENEFITS (2/2)
➤Working poverty rate (number of workers living in a poor household as
% of total employed)
➤HIECS: expenditures and detailed total income
➤ELMPS 2012 and 2018: Said, Galal and Sami (2019)estimated the
low paid workers take into account regional poverty lines
(determined by HIECS), dependency ratios and total earnings.
However, HH enterprise earnings, agricultural earnings, rent,
transfers such as pensions, social assistance and remittances can
be computed.
➤LFS: less reliable data on earnings
➤Proportion of low paid workers (2/3 of the median hourly earnings):
ELMPS 1998-2018 & HIECS ✔

8. 5. SOCIAL PROTECTION
➤ Share of population above statutory pensionable age receiving old-age
pension ELMPS 2006 & 2018 and HIECS ✔
➤ ELMPS 2006 & 2018: info at the individual level up to 3 persons receiving any
old-age pension
➤ Active contributors to social insurance as percent of labor force
➤ Social health protection coverage as a percent of the total population
➤ Proportion of the population covered by social protection floor/systems
ELMPS 2006 & 2018 and HIECS ✔
➤ by gender, children, unemployed, older, disabilities, pregnant
women, newborns work-injury victims, poor and vulnerable (except
for new borns ?)
➤ Share of unemployed receiving regular unemployment benefits - not
relevant in the Egyptian case

9. 6. SAFETY AND HEALTH AT WORK
➤ Fatal occupational injuries - not available X
➤ Non-fatal occupation injuries
➤ by type of injury, type of worker ELMPS 1998-2018 ✔
➤ info up to 3 injuries in the past 12 months and
exposition to risk
➤ by days lost to cases of occupational injury with
temporary incapacity - not available X

10. 7. INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
➤ Collective bargaining coverage rate - not available X
➤ Union membership rate - ELMPS 1988-2018 and LFS 2010, 2011,
2012 (not in data)✔
➤ Days not worked due to strikes or lockouts - not available X

11. CONCLUSION AND MAIN CHALLENGES
(1/2)
➤Most LM indicators can be measured either by the LFS or by the ELMPS
➤But some indicators are not covered by any survey
➤Fatal occupational injuries and non-fatal injuries by days lost to
cases of occupational injury with temporary incapacity
➤Collective bargaining coverage rate
➤Days not worked due to strikes or lockouts

12. CONCLUSION AND MAIN CHALLENGES
(2/2)
➤To be improved/added:
➤ More consistent LFS over the years. Some questions appear or
disappear in certain rounds or are asked differently
➤ NEET: add question on current training and clearly identify military
service (and its duration) in both ELMPS and LFS
➤Identify people not working, seeking work but not available for work in
order to estimate the potential labor force
➤ More accurate data on earnings in LFS
➤ Add or reintroduce questions in LFS on: paid vacation, paid sick leave,
social protection for all individuals (pension, social insurance, health
protection), union membership