Switzerland (2)

Title of the survey

Statistique de l'Emploi (STATEM) (Employment Statistics) (revised from the third quarter of 1992).

Organization responsible

Office fédéral de la statistique (OFS), Section des Entreprises et de l'Emploi.

Periodicity of the survey

Quarterly.

Objectives of the survey

To obtain information on employment trends by branch of economic activity and by canton, consistent with the results of enterprise censuses and surveys and better adapted to economic reality. The results of the survey provide a basis for the calculation of other statistics (calculations per capita, productivity, aggregates, etc.). They are mainly used by the public authorities responsible for economic and regional policy.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Employment.

Reference period

Final working day of the quarter.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

Whole country.

Industrial

All branches of economic activity, excluding the primary sector (agriculture, horticulture, forestry and fishing) and international organizations.

Establishments

All types and sizes of establishments in the private and public sectors, provided that they operate for at least 20 hours a week (units where less than a 20-hour week is worked are not classed as establishments and are not covered in employment statistics).

Persons

All persons employed, excluding home workers.

Occupations

Data are not collected by occupation.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

The survey covers all persons employed, comprising all persons employed in the establishment for at least six hours a week (see the previous description Statistiques de l'Emploi). Data on all persons employed, by sex, are divided into three categories of working schedule:

persons employed on a full-time basis, i.e. 90 per cent or more of normal hours of work in the establishment,
persons employed part-time, above 50 per cent of normal hours,
part-time below 50 per cent (but at least six hours a week).

Short-time work is not treated as part-time work. The distinction between production and office workers has been dropped as being too arbitrary. Data are also collected on the shortage or surplus of skilled labour (training completed), semi-skilled labour (partially trained) and unskilled labour (no training), during the reference quarter and on employment prospects (good, satisfactory, uncertain, poor) for the following quarter. The question formerly asked on employment level has been eliminated. A new variable has been introduced: job vacancies. A post is deemed to be vacant if steps have been taken during the last three months or will very soon be taken to recruit a worker.

Earnings

Not relevant.

Wage/salary rates

Not relevant.

Hours of work

Not relevant.

Classifications

Industrial

The Nomenclature générale des activités économiques of the 1985 Federal census of enterprises. There is some correlation between this classification and the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC), Rev. 2, 1968. There are also correspondence tables between this classification and the classification of economic activities of the European Communities (NACE), Rev.1, which is in turn based on ISIC, Rev. 3, 1990. The results are classified into 48 economic classes (not including groupings).

Occupational

Not relevant.

Others

The data on employment are classified:

by region (26 cantons and half-cantons and five major towns),
by sex (men, women and total),
by type of employment (full-time and two categories of part-time),

The results for Switzerland are classified by class of economic activity, sex and working schedule (combined criteria). In the data by canton, only full-time employment is classified by sector (secondary and tertiary) and by sex. The data on labour shortage or surplus are classified according to skill level (skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled).

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The sampling unit is the establishment, in the sense of local unit.

Survey universe / sample frame

The sample frame is the register of establishments and enterprises of the OFS and the number of jobs listed in it for each establishment. This register is kept up to date on the basis of several sources: the posts and telecommunications register, official trade bulletin, surveys using the register, etc. The data on employment stored in the register are taken either from the last enterprise census (currently the 1991 census), or from the data collected during the initial inquiry conducted on establishments being entered in the register.

Sample design

The survey is conducted on a random sample of establishments, designed to supply optimum results and equal quality for each economic class (second level in the 1985 Swiss classification of economic activities). The variable for which the sample has been optimized is the total number of full-time workers, estimated a year after the last census (1991). The sample is stratified according to branch of economic activity and size class (total of full-time workers). At present, it includes about 45,000 establishments representing about 13 per cent of the establishments listed in the register with a non-zero number of workers at the time of the selection, and about 63 per cent of workers employed. The composition of the sample at the tertiary sector level (hitherto under-represented) has been improved. To a large extent, establishments remain in the sample from one quarter to the next. However, to avoid the sample's ageing it will be partially renewed (rotating panel) on a regular basis in the future. Since enterprises, especially large enterprises comprising many establishments, are not all in a position to supply figures each quarter for all local units or for a sample of them, alternative sample designs have been developed:

In the case of certain large enterprises capable of supplying figures for all their establishments every quarter, thanks to computerization of the data, these establishments are removed from the base universe and form a separate exhaustive stratum of establishments permanently participating in the survey. This stratum is subsequently treated separately in the calculation of estimates.
In the case of other enterprises, in particular public administration, which cannot supply figures for the required units, fictitious units are created in the data bank, corresponding to the data that the enterprises in question can supply. The real units covered by the fictitious units are then de-activated. The participation of these units in the survey is then permanent.

Field work

Data collection

Data are collected either through printed questionnaires sent to the establishments or by exchange of magnetic tapes. A written reminder and selective reminders by telephone are addressed to establishments that have not returned the completed questionnaire by the required date.

Survey questionnaire

The questionnaire consists of one page, with explanations, in which data are inserted on the number of persons employed and additional information according to the categories mentioned above.

Substitution of sampling units

In the case of unexplained non-response by an establishment or an enterprise, employment trends in this establishment are deemed to be identical with the trends in the stratum to which it belongs. In the case of identifiable change (termination of activity, change of address, etc.), the data are adjusted accordingly.

Data processing and editing

The questionnaires are provided with a bar code to identify the sampling units, for the year or quarter concerned. The OFS deals with the reading of the bar codes, the identification of characters in answers to multiple-choice questions, the digitalization of questionnaires and the storage of images by scanner. The questionnaires are then transmitted to the Centre de calcul électronique de l'Administration fédérale, which keys in the data concerning workers. All the data are then subjected to a plausibility programme whereby they are compared with the data for previous periods. Margins of consistency are established and plausibility checks carried out. All data classified as doubtful or false are checked and corrected where possible.

Types of estimates

employment:
- estimates in absolute numbers for employment categories (full-time, part-time at 50 to 89 per cent and part-time at less than 50 per cent);
- indices;
- quarterly and annual changes;
labour shortage or surplus: in percentage of establishments and jobs;
employment prospects: in percentage of establishments and jobs.

The evaluative index of employment prospects may vary from 50 (poor) to 150 (good) and is calculated either in terms of establishments or in terms of full-time jobs.

Construction of indices

The index provided by the new employment statistics is comparable with the former index in respect of definitions (it concerns in particular the total number of employed persons working full-time and those working part-time - at least 50 per cent) and of the base (third quarter 1985=100). It also resembles the former index from the point of view of calculation method, apart from the inclusion of the enterprise demography aspect and the change of sample.

Weighting of sample results

Employment estimates are obtained by expanding the sample results stratum by stratum, i.e. by multiplying the total employment in a stratum for the quarter surveyed by the inverse sampling fraction. The result is then compared at the level of the branch of economic activity with the total employment as measured in this way in the last survey or the initial inquiry for the same sample. In this way, the extrapolation coefficient to be applied to employment recorded in the register is derived. This is a mixed coefficient, which takes into account the demography of the enterprises and the change in sample (unlike the preceding survey which used a coefficient of employment and in which extrapolation was based on the previous quarter). The total number of vacancies is estimated using the quotient of vacancies from the survey over the total number of full-time jobs (job quotient). The number of establishments that have given a certain reply to the questions on labour shortage or surplus and on employment prospects is estimated by simple expansion. The number of jobs in establishments that have replied in a certain way to the questions on labour shortage or surplus and on employment prospects is estimated using the job quotient. In this case, the number of jobs used is the total number of full-time jobs.

Adjustments

Non-response

None.

Other bias

Not relevant.

Use of benchmark data

Not relevant.

Seasonal variations

Not relevant.

Indicators of reliability of the estimates

Coverage of the sampling frame

The register of enterprises and establishments is regularly updated so as to reflect almost all establishments and enterprises. However, units where workers do not work at least 20 hours a week in all are not considered as establishments, and are therefore covered neither by the register nor by the employment statistics.

Sampling error / sampling variance

Not relevant.

Non-response rate

For the first survey (third quarter 1992, the response rate rose, after reminders, to 80 per cent. This rate should improve as the enterprises adapt their computerized personnel management systems to the requirements of employment statistics.

Non-sampling errors

Not relevant.

Conformity with other sources

Comparability between the census of enterprises and the employment statistics is ensured through the use of the same concepts and the same register, by the introduction of a simplified census at shorter intervals and of initial inquiries on enterprises newly entered in the register, by the switch to a random sample, as well as by the introduction of the enterprise demography aspect and greater representativeness.

Available series

employment by class of economic activity, sex and working schedule (full-time and two categories of part-time),
employment by canton, sex and by secondary and tertiary sectors,
employment index by class of economic activity and by sex,
employment index by canton, total, secondary and tertiary sectors,
annual variations in employment, in absolute figures and in percentages, by class of economic activity, sex and working schedule,
annual variations in employment, in absolute figures and in percentages, by canton, sex and sector,
labour shortage and surplus, in percentage of establishments and of jobs, by class of economic activity and skill, as well as by canton and skill,
employment prospects in percentage of establishments and jobs, by class of economic activity and canton.

The quality of the results on the number of job vacancies is in the process of evaluation. They will be published in the near future.

History of the survey

The revised employment statistics survey was conducted for the first time in the third quarter of 1992. The purpose of the revision was to reduce the risk of incompatibility with enterprise surveys, to shorten the interval between exhaustive surveys, to include the enterprise demography aspect and to improve representativeness. In general, the employment changes revealed by the new statistics are expected to be more marked than previously.

Documentation

Office fédéral de la statistique: Statistiques de l'emploi et de la population active occupée (quarterly; Berne); published about two months after the end of the quarter. This publication also contains methodological notes. idem: Annuaire statistique de la Suisse (annual; ibid.). Département fédéral de l'économie publique: La vie économique (monthly; ibid.). The employment indices are stored in the OFS database STATINF, accessible on line, and certain more detailed data are available on diskette. For more comprehensive methodological information, see: Office fédéral de la statistique: Statistiques de l'emploi et de la population active occupée, third quarter 1992. This publication contains a description of the revised employment statistics.

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

No personal data from this survey are communicated to third parties.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

The quarterly series of employment (all persons engaged) in non-agricultural activities and manufacturing are published in Tables 2 and 3 of the Bulletin of Labour Statistics.