In the Fiji public’s preoccupation with the Ashton-Lewis COI Report and Supreme Court opinions, flying completely under the radar has been a press release by the Fiji Bureau of Statistics on the Preliminary Findings from the 2023-24 Employment and Unemployment Survey (EUS).
Having previously worked on the EUS for 2004-05, 2010-11 and 2015-16, I know from first hand experience what incredible treasure troves of data and statistics these EUS are.
They are absolutely vital for the formulation of evidence based national development strategies using solid hard facts, not prejudices.
Governments, NGOs, donors and international organisations can and do use the EUS results in not only formulating sound policies, but also measuring progress (or the lack of it) on employment, unemployment, underemployment, gender pay gaps, unpaid household work, leisure activities (like sports and kava drinking) and also increasingly, statistics on disabilities.
These statistics can be disaggregated by gender (males/females), ethnicity (iTaukei, Indo-Fijian, Others), sectors (Rural/Urban), divisions and provinces, and age groups.
Such statistics are absolutely vital for tackling the many current economic and social problems facing Fiji today visible daily in the media, such as domestic violence, even if the public largely ignore the FBS Press Releases.
But first, let me remind the reader about the significance of the FBS 2023-24 EUS.
The FBS 2023-24 EUS
THE Fiji Bureau of Statistics, where I worked for one year (1972) after graduating from Otago University with a mathematics and statistics degree, is an extraordinary government department rarely in the public eye.
Its dedicated senior staff have numerical and analytical skills that would easily get them jobs in CROP organisations (like Pacific Community), and Australian and NZ bureaus of statistics, at salaries more than five times their current Fiji Government salaries. Many former FBS statisticians have indeed got such jobs with the help of references from me.
The FBS household survey staff conduct the EUS (and also the Household Income and Expenditure Survey) every five years.
Within the bureau there is a veritable army of workers associated with each household survey, whose operations over a year (to iron our seasonal fluctuations) would astonish you.
They meticulously and scientifically select a truly random sample of around 3 per cent of households all over Fiji – urban and rural areas, provinces, coastal and hills, main islands and small.
There is another army of interviewers that marches all over Fiji with rigorously defined questionnaires.
Not ever understood is how the accuracy of such surveys depends on the willingness of households to provide extremely confidential information over a two-week period, fully confident that their data will be anonymous to the public.
Effectively, these 3 per cent EUS samples give results similar to mini-censuses, with incredibly accurate statistics representing the state of affairs in households throughout the entire country: in employment, hours of work, incomes, hours of unpaid household work, hours of leisure activities (kava, sports etc) qualifications, ages, disabilities, to name just a few variables.
For instance, I was truly astonished to find that my estimate from the 3 per cent sample in the 2015-16 EUS what FNPF should be receiving annually in contributions was within 1 per cent of what the FNPF gave in its Annual Report for 2015-16. The EUS data also revealed the significant amount that FNPF was not receiving because employers were not paying their dues.While the recent FBS Preliminary Release has much interesting information, I will focus on just one variable.
Some preliminary 2023-24 findings
The recent FBS press release has many interesting statistics of great policy implications: labour force participation (by gender, age groups), unemployment rates, occupations, industries, household work (by gender and age groups), reasons for leaving school, etc.
The FBS cautions against comparing some of these statistics with that of previous EUS results, because some definitions (for example employment) have changed due to the FBS aligning itself with best international practices.
I give one fascinating result which indicates some social progress is taking place in female male sharing of unpaid household work, a possible flash point for domestic violence against women.
Unpaid household work by wage and salary earners
If one looks only at wage and salary earners, the FBS preliminary release gives the following results for unpaid household work done per week for 2023-24. I also give my comparable results from the 2015-16 EUS.
These statistics indicate some good news: Female wage and salary earners were doing 1.6 hours pw less in 2023-2 than in 2015-16, or a 7 per cent decline.
Male wage and salary earners were doing 1.2 hours per week more, or 13 per cent more in 2023-24 than in 2015-16.
The gender gap had declined by 2.7 hours or 20 per cent.
While these statistics indicate that some progress is being made, the gaps are still extremely large. Not only are female wage and salary earners doing their normal 40-hour paid work per week, they are spending 22 hours of unpaid household work or some 62 hours altogether. Male wage and salaried persons are of course doing 11 hours per week less.
Remember that these are just averages for Fiji and there will be large numbers of cases with even larger gender gaps indicating that the higher pressures on female workers.
Unpaid household work statistics and domestic violence?
It is extraordinary that every week some male leader (political, religious or social) calls on men to respect the women in their lives. They never call on men to share equally in unpaid household work.
But a few days ago The Fiji Times (26/8/2025) had a front page story on Soqosoqo Vakamarama iTaukei Cakaudrove project coordinator Maca Shaw pointing out that men were drinking excessive kava and shirking their household responsibilities, resulting in domestic violence when women could not stand the extra burdens that men demanded of them. Shaw called for men to share their family responsibilities equally with the women.
My 2015-16 EUS data on kava consumption did indicate that males were spending far too much time on kava consumption and too little on household work. I am sure the 2023-24 results will be similar. While my table above only looked at unpaid household work by wages and salary earners, I am confident that the patterns are the same across the entire social spectrum and ages, going down even to school children.
The 2023-24 EUS statistics from the Fiji Bureau of Statistics proves beyond all doubt that social workers like Maca Shaw have solid facts and evidence behind their painful calls for greater sharing of household responsibilities by men and boys, if the problem of domestic violence is to be addressed, at least at one source.
Far more analysis is possible
The FBS must of course follow the international protocols and methodologies for not just conducting their household surveys like the EUS, but also the reports they produce.
Unfortunately, FBS senior staff do not have the luxury nor the time that semi-retired academics like this qase professor has to explore household survey data where their curiosity takes them, often revealing many stories that policy-makers find useful, especially if they are written up in easy to understand English.
Thus the 2015-16 EUS data (and that for 2004-05 and 2010-11) was at the heart of my study for the Fiji Womens’ Rights Movement resulting in the publication Beyond 33 per cent: Economic Empowerment of Fiji Women and Girls, 2023. Funded by Australian Government through DFAT, the report was launched in Suva by the Australian High Commissioner to Fiji and FWRM and provides benchmark data for gender inequalities in income, employment, unemployment, unpaid household work, and leisure activities.
Three months ago, the Minister of Finance (Professor Prasad) supported my request for the full 2023-24 EUS dataset which the FBS Government Statistician (Kemueli Naiqama) has agreed to supply me with, once the dataset had been finalised. I presume that with the preliminary results being released, the data has now been finalised.
I look forward to working again with my FBS colleagues, with whom I have had such a rich productive relationship for the last twenty years, with the support of government statisticians like the late Timoci Bainimarama, Epeli Waqavonovono and most recently for the FWRM study, Kemueli Naiqama.
PROF WADAN NARSEY is one of the region’s senior economists and a regular commentator on political and economic issues in Fiji. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily the views of The Fiji Times.