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STS463 Noraliza M.A. et al.
and the way it operates. These statistics comprised of a wide range of topics
and link to many other bodies of official statistics, such as economic, education
and health (ILO, 2017a). The dynamics of labour statistics encompassed both
demand and supply (ILO, 2017a). Among the labour demand statistics are the
number and characteristics of enterprises, jobs, vacancies as well as the costs
of hiring. Statistics about labour supply deal with the size, structure and
characteristics of working-age population, and more specifically, information
on employment, unemployment, and persons outside the labour force (ILO,
2017a).
In terms of approach of data collection, these statistics are available from
various sources ranging from surveys and censuses using household or
establishment approach as well as administrative records. The production of
these labour indicators adopted different methodologies, which adhered to
the corresponding international standards (ILO, 2017a; ILO, 2017b). From the
perspective of labour supply statistics, the usual source is household approach
through the conduct of censuses and surveys. Although not as popular as the
other data sources, administrative record can provide information of labour
supply as well.
In most countries, the statistics on labour supply are largely dependent
upon the Labour Force Survey (LFS). Eurostat (2019) stated that LFS is a long-
standing survey in Europe, going back to the 50s or 60s in some of the
European countries. France was the first European country to carry out LFS in
1950, followed by Germany in 1957 (European Communities, 2003). The
United Kingdom’s first ever LFS was conducted in 1973 (Office of National
Statistics (ONS) UK, 2017). In the United States of America (USA), Current
Population Survey which is the equivalence of LFS is conducted by the U.S.
Census Bureau to gauge labour supply since 1948 (U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau, 2016). Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
implemented the quarterly LFS for the country since November 1960 and later
improved the frequency of data collection to every month beginning February
1978 (ABS, 2003). Closer to home, that is in the ASEAN regions, Singapore has
st
reached its 41 edition of the LFS in 2018 (Ministry of Manpower, Singapore,
2019), while the undertaking of this survey in Thailand begun in 1963 (National
Statistical Office Thailand, 2017).
In Malaysia, the LFS was conducted by the country’s national statistical
office, Department of Statistics, Malaysia (DOSM) since 1974 at irregular
interval covering Peninsular Malaysia. The survey coverage was expanded to
cover the whole country in 1982 and was conducted every year since then with

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