​​​ The 64^th World Statistics Congress in Ottawa

M​RSD​​​​​ attended the 64th World Statistics Congress (WSC) in Ottawa, Canada from 16 – 20 July 2023. The WSC is organised by the International Statistical Institute (ISI) and known for its valuable mix of high-end content and insights, intensive network opportunities, and knowledge sharing among international statisticians, academics, and business leaders. Held every two years since 1887, the WSC is the leading congress on Statistics and Data Science worldwide.​

The first topic of the poster presentation was ‘Improving Statistical Quality Through Speech Analytics’. In the past, Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) was used to conduct phone interviews for our national surveys. However, that method resulted in large amounts of information contained within these phone interviews to be overlooked. To tackle this issue and improve operational efficiency, MRSD now adopts Speech Analytics software to analyse call transcripts to gain insights into respondent needs and emerging trends. The smart technology enables us to reduce data verification callbacks while simultaneously increasing respondent satisfaction score.

The second poster presentation was on ‘Improving Labour Market Statistical Literacy’. Hinged on the notion that no two people have the exact same level of data literacy, our MRSD statisticians highlighted the Department’s unique ways of reaching out and appealing to different groups of target audience including students, the media, and our general man-on-the-street community.

Our recent collaboration with local tertiary institutions and universities was one of the initiatives outlined. MRSD has been working closely with schools to conduct engaging presentations and seminars aimed at educating students on how to identify, analyse, and utilise relevant data such as income and job vacancy data for both their academic work and job search. In addition, the team also presented on our efforts to connect with our layman audience through bite-sized content pieces in the form of blog posts, email blurbs, and infographics on more relatable topics such as wage practices and flexible work arrangements, underlining our goal to make data accessible and meaningful for all.

Next were the paper presentations. The first topic being ‘Women In The Workplace: The Optimisation Of Flexible Work In A Pandemic-Experienced World’. Following the pandemic, Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs) have become more widely available than ever. While FWAs have helped many to balance work and family demands, they might inadvertently lead to burnout for women, who are statistically more likely to use these FWAs.

This presentation highlighted how statistics, such as hours spent on housework and childcare during the pandemic and beyond, can help us understand the extent of women’s work in the workplace and at home. With this information, improved arrangements and ultimately, better outcomes for women can be achieved. ​​​​​
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Our next paper presentation, ‘Platform Work’, underscores Singapore’s experience in improving our data collection methods to identify current and emerging trends of platform work. With the constantly evolving trends in question, MRSD also highlighted areas for further methodological work to study the platform economy. Some areas to be explored include refining and streamlining data collection processes to improve data quality and accuracy while concurrently easing respondent burden.

The conference was a great opportunity for our MRSD team to meet with like-minded statisticians and share about our experiences in data collection and​ analysis. We are thrilled to learn from the tried-and-tested methods adopted by our global counterparts and apply these new processes back home to further improve our daily operations and deliver top quality data. It is always our goal to continue striving to make labour market data accessible and meaningful for all.