Working Life Barometer in the Baltic Countries 2002 (pdf) - mol.fi

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to; and, in fact, it can be very difficult to estimate the degree of possibility to
exert influence. Furthermore, it is almost impossible to interpret mere information
on transitions, if the level of generality and frequency cannot be estimated
even roughly. A very rare phenomenon may increase very quickly and
the changes can be very big. Again, a very general phenomenon cannot multiply,
even theoretically. Therefore, in the Working Life Barometer of the Baltic
Countries, the measurements of levels and changes in many of the aspects
have, for interpretative reasons, been dealt with for the different countries in
parallel.
The change of study themes has, in part, been influenced by the needs of the
countries. In each of the countries, a local team of experts has participated in
the project. These teams have given ‘internal’ professional and currently relevant
comments in the preparation stage of the research. The comments have
been taken into account when formulating the questions.
COLLECTING THE RESEARCH MATERIAL
This is a quantitative research study. The sampling method was a structured
face-to-face interview, carried out at the respondents’ homes between January
and February 2002. Both the sampling and the collecting were carried out by
local market research institutes: Saar Poll (Estonia), Latvijas Fakti (Latvia)
and Baltijos tyrimai (Lithuania). The method was to form a nation-wide sample
created by multistage stratified sampling. The aim of the sampling was to
get at least 900 answers in each country (reached sample). In Estonia, the
number of answers was 900, in Latvia 904 and in Lithuania 909. The results
can be generalised for the whole country in question. A more specific description
of the sampling, non-response and material representativeness is given in
the enclosed technical reports for each country (see the Appendix).
The target group consisted of working wage earners and entrepreneurs between
the ages of 16 and 64. Unemployed people were not interviewed. Since
the question of language is very important in this kind of research, the questionnaire
form was translated into the national languages and into Russian.
The original text was in English. The translations were checked by teams in
each country, and native speakers of each language checked the translations of
the English and Russian versions. Naturally, the Russian version is the same in