Hi!!
I am calculating labor force participation rate for male and female for primary age (25-54) by using IPUMS data. However, I found that my calculated Labor Force participation rate doesn’t match with ILO primary age female and male labor force participation rates? Can you kindly advise me that if IPUMS International Survey represent all population? How should I approach in labor force participation calculations?
Thank you so much.
IPUMS International data comes primarily from a country’s censuses (though we offer a few labor force surveys and national surveys in lieu of the census samples in some limited cases). The ILO’s estimates of labor force participation rates and other labor force statistics come from different data sources. Please reference the IPUMS International samples page for a summary of the available data. The ILO sources data from a variety of survey types (see ILO data sources here), including child labor surveys, consumer price surveys, insurance records, and household income/expenditure surveys. We would not expect the estimates from the different data sources to match exactly for a variety of reasons. The samples are comprised of different individuals, the survey questions asked of respondents are different, and the post-data collection methods used to modify the data by governments and by the ILO (such as the use of weights) are likely different.
The samples drawn from national censuses available via IPUMS International should be nationally representative. Sometimes, very small populations, such as ethnic minorities, are oversampled to ensure an adequate number of observations are available for statistical analysis. You can learn more about the sample design for any given sample in IPUMS International by clicking on it in the samples page linked previously. It is important to use weights to address differences in the probability of being sampled to make inferences about population-level estimates.
I encourage you to compare the data source, available data, and any documentation about sampling methods and other features of the data from both IPUMS International and the ILO to decide what is more appropriate for your purposes.