When labour force numbers for the fourth quarter of 2021 came out showing an unemployment rate of more than 35%, the small print at the back of the release showed that the numbers were based on a survey with a response rate of less than 45% nationwide — and as low as 23% for Gauteng. The experts were sceptical that a survey that flawed could possibly yield accurate results.
The background was that Stats SA had to suspend face-to-face surveying at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and instead relied on telephone interviews, which tend to have much more patchy response rates. Since the start of this year the statistics agency has resumed face-to-face surveying and the survey is clearly getting back to normal. Second quarter numbers released on Tuesday show the response rate jumped to 78.7%, with Gauteng’s responses staging a turnaround to just more than 60%.
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