I am working on the first national survey to gauge the impact of the revolution in Egypt and the ensuing economic crisis on Egyptian household; this initiative will analyze the data we are collecting from the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey of 2012. I start the training of the field personnel tomorrow and we start the field work on Feb 26.
Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey, 2012 by The Economic Research Forum for the Arab Countries, Iran and Turkey
The Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey 2012 (ELMPS 12) is a follow-up survey to the Egypt Labor Market Surveys of 2006 & 1998 (ELMPS06 & ELMS 98), which were carried out by the Economic Research Forum (ERF) in cooperation with the Egyptian Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS). The ELMPS 12 will be carried out by ERF, in cooperation with CAPMAS. ERF will lead the project, design the survey instrument and analyze the resulting data. CAPMAS will undertake the data collection and processing. The ELMPS 12 is the third round of a periodic longitudinal survey that tracks the labor market characteristics of the households and the individuals interviewed in 1998 and 2006, any new households that might have split from them, as well as a refresher sample to ensure that the data continue to be nationally-representative. In 2012, the refresher sample will over-sample high migration areas to allow more detailed measures of migration trends, determinants and consequences in Egypt. The expected sample for the ELMPS 12 is 13,000 households; 8,351 households were already interviewed in 2006, an estimated number of 2,500 splits and a new refresher sample of 2,000 households over-sampling areas with a high density of migrants.
Justification
The need for high quality microdata on the Egyptian labor market cannot be exaggerated. Since the implementation of the ELMS 98&06, there has been no reliable detailed information on labor market conditions in Egypt. The regular Labor Force Sample Survey (LFSS) carried out quarterly by CAPMAS produces very limited information in the form of ready-made tables that do not allow for in-depth analyses due to the relatively limited set of issues covered by the survey. Moreover, the microdata produced by the LFSS is not made available to researchers for analysis. Over the past years, the data of the ELMS 1998 & 2006 have proved to be the workhorse of labor market research in Egypt. In conjunction with the comparable data from the special round of the LFSS in 1988, it has been the only reliable source of information of labor market conditions. It served as the main data source for multiple reports by international agencies, such as the World Bank, the European Commission, ERF, as well as for a large number of papers and dissertations. Cognizant of the dire need for a comparable updated data source to support labor market research in Egypt and to investigate the impact of 25th of January revolution on the economy and labor market, ERF is proposing to carry out a follow-up survey in 2012, using a panel design.
