Census 2011 - Slightly Off the Mark?

Meet Martina: Since her position at the bank was made redundant last year, she has juggled a number of roles: working and studying part time on a FÁS employment programme; caring for her disabled parents and her children; and spending her spare time on plans to start her own business. On Sunday, 10th April, Martina sat down to fill out the Census form. When she reached questions 27to 34 – the section dealing with status, employment and education – confusion set in.

The CSO tells us that filling in the Census form will help provide data that will assist the Irish government and others to plan for the future, providing an extensive picture of our individual social and living conditions that will map out future policy, planning and decision-making in areas such as health care, education and employment. The resultant analysis will capture a snapshot of Irish society, but how clear, complete and comprehensive will the picture actually be?

On a deeper reading of the Census form, it appears that some questions are framed from a traditional, one-dimensional view of our country and do not reflect the current reality for many thousands of Irish citizens like Martina.

The employment questions highlight the potential for error by making it difficult for Martina to classify her status. Question 27 (how would you describe your present principal status) is the basis of all economic analysis emanating from the census. It groups persons aged 15 years and over, within and outside the labour force, according to their primary economic status. There is, however, no specific designation for participants on state-sponsored programmes. How should Martina and the other 57,762 FÁS trainees, 14,944 apprentices, and the 25,906 people engaged on employment programmes categorise themselves? Do they tick the ‘working for payment or profit’ box, the ‘unemployed’ box, the ‘student or pupil’ box, the ‘other’ box, or all of the above? This lack of clarity may potentially generate insufficient and inappropriate labour market policy responses by trying to categorise the entire adult population into simplified groupings.

An interesting discussion arises when question 29 (do/did you work as an employee or are/were you self-employed in your main job?) is probed. This question is used to assign social class to all at work, now or formerly. If it is such a key economic variable, what is the rationale for excluding students, carers and those unable to work due to permanent sickness/disability altogether? These groups are referred to in question 27, but there is no mention of them in question 29. Where did they go? When it now comes to allocating social class, those formerly part of the labour force are simply omitted. How then do we ascertain their socio-economic status?

This omission is compounded in question 28 which asks those working, the unemployed and retirees to self-declare their present/previous main job, but asks students, carers and those unable to work due to permanent sickness/disability to skip the question on prior occupational status. The 14 per cent of our students in higher education that are mature students, the estimated eight per cent of adults providing non-paid care (one-third of whom work full-time according to the CSO) and the almost 100,000 individuals claiming Disability Allowance may be left wondering how they will be represented in the statistics.

Furthermore, one of the aims of the census is to provide a detailed picture of the occupations of the entire population, assisting analysts and the government to understand the economic infrastructure of Ireland. Yet none of the questions take account of non-traditional employment arrangements. Respondents are unable to highlight the fact that, like Martina, they may occupy more than one role, always having to opt for their ‘principal’ position, defined by the job in which they usually work/worked the most hours (questions 27 to 34). The Census form excludes those who wish to be represented as combining paid and self employment; students who may also work in paid or self employment; and part-time/seasonal/casual workers who are entitled to Jobseekers Benefit or Allowance. Being forced to indicate one designation alone may facilitate the complex analysis process, but it in no way reflects the diversity of occupational patterns that individuals exhibit, particularly in the current economic environment.

On Sunday, 10^th April we are all asked to make our mark, an action that will define our future policies. The design of the employment questions on the Census form is off the mark and has the potential to exclude, or at the very least, confuse those having multiple roles in our society. As a result, it will not paint a true picture of the textured and rich career patterns the population has.