Labour Ministry Launches Child Survey Report
The Ministry of Labour in collaboration with the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services or LISGIS and the International Labour Organization or ILO has launched the 2010 Labour force survey report in Monrovia.
The launch took place Tuesday, 6 November in the auditorium of the University of Liberia as part of effort to provide timely and reliable data for the formulation of policy and the development of intervention strategies in creating decent work for Liberians.
Speaking at the launch, Labour Minister Cllr. Juah F. Lawson, explained that there is a great drought in the country’s labour force data due to weak statistical infrastructure of national and sectoria offices, and was being compounded by the lack of trained manpower in the collection, compilation and analysis of complex data.
She pointed that since two democratic elections in Liberia have taken the initiative to setting up roadmaps for national development, including the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) and the Vision 2030 project, it will compel a need to collect real-time information on the Labour market.
She also stressed the need for the ministry to construct an internet database for every business entities in the country to assist in the understanding of the demand and supply of the Labour market through the collection and analysis of data from each business establishments in the country.
The Labour Minister added that it is important for every alien coming in the country to get registered to establish the overall number of skills available for work. She told reporters that the ministry is in partnership with the ILO and LISGIS to conduct second round of the school to transition survey in 2014 and the Labour force survey in 2015.
According to her, from the report launched, the country will be able to understand the proportion of children seeking employment, their socio-economic and demographic characteristics from the number of children that are in engaged in hazardous work and other worst forms of child Labour.
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She narrated that out of a total of 937,310, children, 4.5 percent were engaged in child labor, and that 4.1 percent were involved with some sort of hazardous work that are prohibited for children age 5 to 17 years. She further pointed out that youth employment is an issue that borders not only on the development of future leaders, but also on the stability of the nation.
