33,000 homes covered in 2010 survey: MOM

33,000 homes covered in 2010 survey: MOM
- TODAY, 17 June 2010

Please refer to Mr Dominic Leong’s letter, “How accurate can survey be?” (TODAY, 11 Jun 2010).

2. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) is conducting the Comprehensive Labour Force Survey on a sample of 33,000 households to collect data on employment, unemployment and other economic characteristics of the population to help in the planning and formulation of manpower-related policies and programmes. As the households selected are a sub-sample of the Census of Population 2010, we are also collecting additional socio-demographic information including religion, language literacy, mode of transport and time spent travelling to school or work. This is to ensure that the selected households will only need to be surveyed once.

3. Respondents may arrange for phone interviews for each member of the household to be surveyed individually by calling the Survey Hotline at 1800-228-6688 from 9.00 am to 9.00 pm from Monday to Sunday.

4. We look forward to Mr Leong’s participation in the survey.

How accurate can survey be?
- TODAY, 11 June 2010

My household was one of those selected to participate in a Ministry of Manpower (MOM) survey as part of the government's wider Census 2010. I have no issue with the survey per se, but I am perplexed at its methods.

Respondents have to submit their replies as an entire household unit, meaning that in a family of four, such as mine, we have to submit our answers together. I find this problematic as there is obviously plenty of sensitive information that has to be filled in, such as income and religion.

I may enjoy a good relationship with my family, but that does not mean that I wish to share with them how much I earn; I believe I would not be the only person who feels this way.

More importantly, religion is an even more sensitive issue. I have friends who have converted to a religion different from the faith of their parents and have kept this a secret for fear of upsetting the older folk. If someone in this situation has his household selected to take part in this census and has to hide his true beliefs in his response to the survey, then how accurate would the results be?

MOM should implement a system where each person in the selected households has to respond individually. This secures the privacy of each person, while guaranteeing better, more accurate results for the census. Of course, other households could respond as a singular unit for their convenience, if they so wish.

I truly believe this is an important issue that the relevant agencies and ministries should look into urgently, as the deadline for responding to the survey is coming up very shortly.