Bulgaria - 2

Title of the survey

Number of employees and wage and salary funds.

Organization responsible

National Statistical Institute.

Periodicity of the survey

Monthly.

Objectives of the survey

To obtain information about employment and earnings by branch of economic activity and other characteristics, in the national economy. The results are used by the Government, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, Social Security authorities, and for computation of the National Accounts.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Number of employees, earnings and labour turnover.

Reference period

The whole month.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

The whole country.

Industrial

All branches of economic activity except the armed forces.

Establishments

All types and sizes of establishments in the public sector, and establishments with at least one employee in the private sector.

Persons

Employees under labour contract, civil contract and contract for management, and working owners.

Occupations

The survey does not cover individual occupations.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

Employees are all persons performing some work for remuneration in the public or private sector. They include:

Employees in the public sector, of which (i) employees under labour contracts, and (ii) employees under civil contracts and employees under contracts for management and control who do not work in more than one firm;

Employees in the private sector, of which employees under labour and civil contracts; and

Working owners and directors.

Employees include apprentices, trainees, workers on probation, commission agents, home workers, casual, seasonal and temporary workers, and persons temporarily absent from work because of paid or unpaid vacation or holiday, temporary lay off, sickness of accident, etc. Full- and part-time workers are included.

Manual/production workers and non-manual workers (i.e. managerial, administrative and clerical employees) are identified separately.

Excluded from employees are workers sub-contracted from other companies or firms, unpaid contributing family workers as well as persons absent from work for temporary military service, and the armed forces.

Since 1992, persons on maternity leave are also excluded from employment data.

Earnings

Data are collected on gross cash earnings of employees under labour or civil contracts.

Gross earnings (i.e. before deduction of employees' contributions to social security schemes, pension funds and similar schemes, and employees' personal taxes) comprise:

direct wages and salaries for time worked or work done, including overtime pay, premium pay for shift, night or holiday work; cost-of-living allowances; commissions; bonuses, such as incentives according to the Labour Code, other laws and regulations, collective or individual contract;
remuneration for time not worked (annual leave, vacation, public holidays and other time off with pay);
irregular bonuses and premiums (seasonal and similar bonuses, profit-sharing bonuses).

Earnings exclude the value of payments in kind and year-end bonuses.

Allowances such as housing, transport and family allowances payable by the employer are not applicable in Bulgaria.

Wage / salary rates

Data on wage/salary rates include the basic rates of pay for hours worked, work and services performed, cost-of-living allowances and other guaranteed and regularly paid allowances. They exclude the value of payments in kind.

Hours of work

Not relevant.

International recommendations

The definitions of earnings and wage or salary rates comply with the international recommendations on cash earnings and wage rates.

Classifications

Industrial

Data are classified according to the National Classification of Economic Activities (NCEA), which is based on the Statistical Classification of economic activities of the European Communities (NACE, Rev. 1).

Occupational

Employment data are classified according to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-88) at the first-digit level.

Others

Data are classified by district and sector.

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The enterprise, firm or organisation.

Survey universe / sample frame

It consists of the whole list of enterprises, firms and organisations with at least one employee, drawn from the United State Register of the economic units BULSTAT. On 31st December 1997, the Register comprised a total of 447,714 units. These units were further classified by kind of ownership as follows:

State,
Municipal,
Private ownership, of which:
- resident,
- under foreign control,
- non-government organisation,
- foreign institution and state, international organisation,
- mixed (50/50).

Sample design

In the public sector, the survey is based on a complete enumeration of all enterprises, firms and organisations. In the private sector, enterprises with at least one employee are stratified by economic activity and employment size, and a 15% sample (i.e. 9,000 enterprises out of a total of 60,000 enterprises with at least one employee) is drawn as follows:

6% of enterprises with one to ten employees,
30% of enterprises with 11 to 20 employees,
40% of enterprises with 21 to 50 employees,
all enterprises with 51 and more employees.

Field work

Data collection

Data collection takes place through mailed questionnaires, under the responsibility of a permanent survey organisation.

Survey questionnaire

Not available.

Substitution of sampling units

No substitution is applied.

Data processing and editing

Not available.

Types of estimates

Total number of employees and average monthly earnings.

Construction of indices

Index numbers are not constructed.

Weighting of sample results

Not available.

Adjustments

Non-response

Not available.

Other bias

Not available.

Use of benchmark data

Not available.

Seasonal variations

Not available.

Indicators of reliability of the estimates

Coverage of the sampling frame

BULSTAT is assumed to cover all enterprises in the public and private sectors.

Sampling error / sampling variance

Not available.

Non-response rate

Not available.

Non-sampling errors

Not available.

Conformity with other sources

Not available.

Available series

Monthly number of employees and average monthly earnings by economic activity.

History of the survey

The survey was introduced in 1992. Up to 1996, it was conducted quarterly and covered the public sector only. Since 1997, it has been conducted monthly and in 1998, the coverage was extended to the private sector.

The National Classification of Economic Activities (NCEA) was introduced at the beginning of 1997. Prior to that date, the Classification of Branches in National Economy (CBNE-86) was used since 1986. The two classifications are not directly compatible.

Documentation

National Statistical Institute: Statistical Yearbook (annual, Sofia);

idem: Statistical Reference Book of the Republic of Bulgaria (annual, ibid.)

idem: Statistical News (quarterly, ibid.)

Published data on the number of employees and average earnings refer to employees under labour contract in the public and private sectors.

Results which do not appear in national publications can be made available upon request and can be obtained on diskette.

Web-site: http://www.nsi.bg

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

Not available.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

The following quarterly and monthly data are published in the Bulletin of Labour Statistics: Paid employment (employees under labour contract) and average monthly earnings of employees under labour contract in non-agricultural activities and manufacturing.