Monitoring Indonesian Food Crop Incomes, Wage Rates, and Labor Absorption: Uses and Limitations of the Central Bureau of Statistics Farm Cost Structure Survey (Survei Struktur Ongkos)

Abstract

<p>This export provides an assessment of the available data sources on wage rates and employment in the food crop sector of Indonesia. Analysis indicated that it is difficult to assess changes in real wages due to significant differences in the inflation rates measured by alternative cost-of-living indexes. However, alternative data series showed similar trends in nominal wages over the past decade. The available data on food crop employment are either too incomplete or too micro-level in nature to permit an assessment of trends in labor absorption. Several modifications are suggested to improve the structure of cost survey data for future monitoring of these important indicators of rural welfare.</p>