KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) is urging Jamaicans to support its household expenditure survey (HES), as information obtained will be strictly confidential.

“All of our interviewers and all our employees signed an oath of confidentiality and we take that oath seriously, so we want to reassure Jamaicans that the information that they provide is confidential under the Statistics Act and we cannot provide this to any other party,” Project Manager for the HES, Shelly-Ann Chambers, told JIS News.

The HES, which will be conducted from February 6, 2017 to February 2018, collects information on the amount households spend on consumer goods and services such as food, education, health and transportation.

This is being done in order to determine the general pattern of expenditure throughout the economy.

“If households are so selected to participate in the survey, we urge them to co-operate and be compliant with the interviewers as the information collected is very important and will impact the lives of every Jamaican,” Chambers emphasised.

Explaining the survey process, the project manager said there will be an initial visit to the households to introduce the interviewers and explain the survey. A diary will be left with a randomly selected member of the household to collect individual expenses and input other relevant information.

“We want to capture everything that the household spends on…so the diary will be left to record their expenses over a two-week span,” Chambers pointed out.

She added that during the process, a questionnaire will also be administered to members of the household.

“It (the survey) might require more than one visit depending on the accommodation of the householder, but once the questionnaire has been completed, that is the end of the data collection process for that household,” the project manager said.  

She said that each month, a sample of approximately 1,200 households will be visited by the STATIN interviewers amounting to some 15,000 households at the end of the survey or the year.

The information garnered from the HES is critical to the review of pensions, calculation of electricity rates, computation of wages and salaries as well as socio-economic policy formulation and other decision-making processes in public and private entities.

The survey is conducted every five to 10 years. The last one was done in 2004/2005.