SamoaStrength Beyond the Door
High job quality and firm ownership. Youth unemployment and participation remain the constraints.
Samoa scores a GEVI of 59.3 (90% interval 55.1 to 63.3), the second highest in the series and in the Partial band. Women in work do very well on job quality and firm ownership, but only 30.7% of women are in the labour force against 54.5% of men, and young women's unemployment is 21.4% against 8.52% for young men. One input (WBL enforcement perceptions) is imputed, giving a blind-spot ratio of 0.08.
Source: the attached country paper. Animation reveals the reported measures; it does not show change over time.
Abstract
Samoa scores a GEVI of 59.3 (90% interval 55.1 to 63.3), the second highest in the series and in the Partial band. Women in work do very well on job quality and firm ownership, but only 30.7% of women are in the labour force against 54.5% of men, and young women's unemployment is 21.4% against 8.52% for young men. One input (WBL enforcement perceptions) is imputed, giving a blind-spot ratio of 0.08.
Samoa has the highest job-quality score of any economy in the series (D2 = 0.938), with women holding 40.7% of senior and middle management and 62.7% of women's employment in wage work. The constraint is at the door: the youth unemployment gap (I3 = 0.398) and the low labour force participation of women (I1 = 0.563). Raising I3 to 0.70, by closing most of the youth unemployment gap, would lift the index by 2.3 points to 61.7, more than any other single change tested.
The paper prioritises diagnose the youth gap; fill the enforcement data hole; report wage employment by sex from PAYE returns.
Samoa is the series' best case for using GEVI as a monitoring tool: a high D2 (0.938) shows the index rewards genuine strengths, and the remaining gaps are specific enough to assign to named agencies.
Download the paper PDFHeadline result
High job quality and firm ownership. Youth unemployment and participation remain the constraints.
90% interval 55.1–63.3.
Rank 2 of 15 · Blind-spot ratio 0.08.
versus D2 at 0.938
Samoa is the series' best case for using GEVI as a monitoring tool: a high D2 (0.938) shows the index rewards genuine strengths, and the remaining gaps are specific enough to assign to named agencies.
How the index is built
Each dimension is the simple mean of its indicators. GEVI is the weighted geometric mean of the five dimension scores.
| Dimension | Score D | Weight w | D^w |
|---|---|---|---|
| D1 Labour participation | 0.602 | 0.25 | 0.8808 |
| D2 Job quality and seniority | 0.938 | 0.20 | 0.9873 |
| D3 Enterprise and legal rights | 0.626 | 0.20 | 0.9106 |
| D4 Institutional visibility | 0.396 | 0.15 | 0.8703 |
| D5 Statistical and political voice | 0.473 | 0.20 | 0.8609 |
= 59.3
Product of the five terms = 0.5933, so GEVI = 100 × 0.5933 = 59.3, rank 2 of 15. Dimension values and the index are rounded as reported in the source.
Uncertainty and rank sensitivity
The 10,000-draw simulation samples each score with the standard deviation of its grade (12 grade A at 0.02, 1 grade C at 0.12) and draws dimension weights from a Dirichlet distribution centred on the base weights. Median 59.0, 5th to 95th percentile 55.1 to 63.3; blind-spot ratio 1/13 = 0.08. Under 5,000 random weight sets alone, the rank has a median of 2 with a range of 1 to 3.
Input interpretation
I9 is imputed with the series median because the World Bank did not publish a Samoa score, citing too few expert responses. I7 is capped at 1 because 54.9% exceeds the 50% parity benchmark.
Where the gap is
Each dimension is raised to full parity while holding the others fixed.
| Dimension raised to 1.0 | GEVI | Gain |
|---|---|---|
| D1 | 67.4 | +8.0 |
| D2 | 60.1 | +0.8 |
| D3 | 65.2 | +5.8 |
| D4 | 68.2 | +8.8 |
| D5 | 68.9 | +9.6 |
Single-indicator scenarios
Each scenario lifts one indicator to the upper quartile of countries with data.
| Indicator lifted | From | To | GEVI | Gain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I3 Youth unemployment | 0.398 | 0.802 | 62.4 | +3.1 |
| I1 Labour force participation | 0.563 | 0.911 | 62.0 | +2.7 |
| I12 Women MPs | 0.196 | 0.382 | 61.5 | +2.2 |
| I2 Youth NEET | 0.844 | 0.907 | 59.8 | +0.5 |
Values and gains are reproduced as printed in the paper; rounding can cause differences between displayed gains and subtraction of displayed index values. These conditional scenarios are not forecasts or causal estimates.
Reading the result
Samoa has the highest job-quality score of any economy in the series (D2 = 0.938), with women holding 40.7% of senior and middle management and 62.7% of women's employment in wage work. The constraint is at the door: the youth unemployment gap (I3 = 0.398) and the low labour force participation of women (I1 = 0.563). Raising I3 to 0.70, by closing most of the youth unemployment gap, would lift the index by 2.3 points to 61.7, more than any other single change tested.
At 9.8% of seats (5 of 51), women's parliamentary presence is low next to its ministerial share of 23.1%, so cabinet has moved faster than the electoral base.
Priorities and practical use
The priorities connect the index to actions and named users.
Diagnose the youth gap. Model young women's unemployment against education, island of residence and household type using the labour force survey microdata to see whether the gap is demand-side or a search-behaviour effect.
Fill the enforcement data hole. Encourage local legal practitioners to complete the next expert survey so I9 becomes a measured rather than imputed value.
Report wage employment by sex from PAYE returns. Samoa's high I6 is survey-based; an administrative series would confirm it and lift D4.
Who uses the data, and for what decision?
| Data product | Primary user | Decision it informs | Cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| I3 and I1: youth unemployment and participation by sex, cross-tabulated by island and education | Labour ministry, statistics office | Whether the youth gap (21.4% for young women, 8.52% for young men) needs demand-side job creation or search and placement support | Each labour force survey |
| I5, I6 and I7: management share, wage share and firm ownership | Revenue authority, private-sector development agency | Evidence that women in Samoa already hold formal, senior and owner roles, which supports targeted (not blanket) tax and licensing support | Annual |
| I9 enforcement score, currently imputed | Justice ministry, law society | A completed expert survey so enforcement is measured, not assumed at the series median | Next WBL round |
| I13 coverage (9 of 12 rows; account ownership, savings and unpaid care time are missing) | Statistics office, central bank | Which three rows to add so financial inclusion and time-use become visible | Survey plan |
Samoa is the series' best case for using GEVI as a monitoring tool: a high D2 (0.938) shows the index rewards genuine strengths, and the remaining gaps are specific enough to assign to named agencies.
Series: GEVI Research Series · DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23205329