China
Title of the survey
Employment and wages statistics based on enterprises' reports
Organization responsible
Ministry of Labour and State Statistical Bureau
Periodicity of the survey
Monthly and annual (since 1995, quarterly and annual).
Objectives of the survey
Mainly to draw up employment plans at the macro level and to measure
increases and changes that have occurred in employees' wages.
Main labour topics covered by the survey
Employment, earnings and hours of work.
Reference period
For employment: the last day of each month or quarter and the end of
the year.
For earnings: the month or quarter and the year.
For hours of work: the month or the whole quarter.
Coverage of the survey
Geographical
The whole country.
Data on hours of work are collected in eight main cities only.
Industrial
All branches of economic activity. In agriculture, only State farms
operating in farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery are
covered. Armed forces are excluded.
Data on hours of work are collected for manufacturing and construction
only.
Establishments
All types and sizes of enterprises, including village and township
enterprises, institutions and bodies, those with state
ownership, collective ownership and other types of ownership, as well as
village and township self-employed persons.
Data on hours of work are collected from 30 selected enterprises only.
Persons
All Chinese persons employed in the above-mentioned enterprises,
including employees and self-employed persons, and Chinese workers sent
abroad. Foreign personnel working in China are excluded.
Occupations
Data are not collected by occupation.
Concepts and definitions
Employment
Persons employed refer to the total number of persons engaged
in social labour which generates wages or income. They include the
following categories, classified by type of ownership of enterprises and
by urban and rural location:
- Total staff and workers,
- Employees in urban private enterprises,
- Urban individual labourers,
- Rural labourers,
- Other social labourers.
Persons employed in various units refers to the total number
of employees working and receiving income from government agencies of
various levels, political and party organizations, social organizations,
and enterprises and institutions, including reemployed retirees,
non-government paid teachers, foreigners, and Chinese people from
Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan working in various units. This indicator
reflects the total number of persons actually engaged in production and
other operations in various units.
Staff and Workers are employees who work in and receive
income from enterprises and institutions of state ownership, collective
ownership, joint ownership, shareholding, foreign ownership, ownership
by overseas Chinese from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and other
ownership and their affiliated units.
Staff and workers under contract refer to employees
employed by enterprises and institutions under contract for a fixed
term, non-fixed term or a term of a project, according to the
regulations of Document No. 77 (1986) and Decree No. 99 promulgated by
the State Council.
Permanent staff and workers are those whose employment period is
one year or more, including original permanent staff and workers, staff
and workers under contract, long-term temporary staff and workers, and
staff and workers of collectively-owned units employed by state-owned
units and other units with employment periods of one year or above.
Temporary staff and workers refer to
those who are employed for less
than one year, including staff and workers employed temporarily or
seasonally for less than one year, according to the Government
regulations.
Other employees are employees who are not reported as
staff and workers, but who are actually involved in social labour
generating income.
Other employees in various units refer to
those who are not included
in the statistics of staff and workers, but actually participate to the
production or service in various units and receive income therefrom,
including the reemployed retirees, non-government paid teachers,
foreigners, and overseas Chinese from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan
working in various units.
Urban individual labourers refer to those who are engaged in
registered production and operation activities and have their population
registration record in urban areas.
Rural labourers refer to those who work in enterprises and
institutions with state ownership, collective ownership, joint
ownership, shareholding, foreign ownership, ownership by overseas
Chinese from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and other ownership, with
their population registration record still remaining in rural areas.
Individual labourers in rural areas refer to rural workers
who participate in family sideline production organized by cooperative
economic organizations (including township-run enterprises and
institutions) and receive income in kind or in cash. They also include
workers imposed by the government from township or villages: full-time
township or village managers paid by non-government expenses; workers
in state-owned or urban collectively-owned units under contract, or
temporarily, and who receive income in kind or in cash, after paying a
proportion of the income to cooperative economic units; and those who
work in an urban area, but still have a population registration record
in rural areas.
Individual labourers in urban and rural areas also include individuals
who own their own business (usually small scale enterprises) and their
employees.
Number of persons newly employed in urban areas refers to all
persons who have registered with the labour bureau and have found jobs,
and secondary school graduates who have registered with their street
committees and found jobs, during the given period.
Earnings
They refer to the total remuneration (wage bill) paid to
employees, and include the following components:
- time wages, paid according to standards (including regional
differentials) and related laws, regulations and policies, such as the
pay rules for sick leave, industrial injury, maternity leave, family
planning benefit, marriage or death leave, leave of absence, family
visiting leave, official duties, on-the-job training, and participation
to social work;
- standard piece-rate wages paid by units where piece-rate wages are
applied according to approved standards and labour quota;
- extra piece-rate wages, which refer to the payments made to workers
for their extra work beyond the labour quota, and correspond to the
total piece-rate wage bill, minus the standard piece-rate wage bill. In
some enterprises, the standard piece-rate wage for some workers exceeds
their normal payment. In this case, the extra piece-rate wage is still
calculated as the total wage bill minus the standard piece-rate wage
bill;
- bonuses for extra work and improvements in profitability;
- allowances and subsidies, i.e. allowances paid for compensating
special or extra work, and subsidies paid to offset the impact of
inflation on real wages.
Three levels of wage measures are used:
- Labour remuneration: the total payments made by various units to
their employees during a certain period of time, including the total
wage bill of permanent staff and workers and the remuneration paid to
other employees.
- Total wage bill of staff and workers: the total remuneration paid to
permanent staff and workers of various units during a certain period of
time, regardless of their source and type, in cash or in kind.
- Labour remuneration to other employees: the total wages paid by
various units to other employees during a certain period of time.
Wage/salary rates
Not relevant.
Hours of work
Data are collected on:
- normal hours of work and working days, as fixed by the state or
enterprises' regulations;
- hours and days actually worked by full-time production workers in
industry and construction.
Hours actually worked include hours worked during normal periods of work
and overtime hours, as well as inactive periods of time spent at the
workplace while the workers are waiting or standing by due to reasons
such as mechanical breakdown or lack of supply of materials.
Hours actually worked exclude absences due to vacation, holidays,
sickness or accident, occupational injury or any other type of
absence.
Days actually worked refer to the time worked by the workers in one
shift.
International recommendations
The total wage bill or labour remuneration, by employee category,
corresponds to the definition of total earnings, including both regular
and irregular payments, in cash and in kind, contained in the
international recommendations on statistics of earnings.
The definition of hours actually worked is in line with the
international guidelines.
Classifications
Industrial
The national industrial classification is divided into 16 major
branches:
- farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery,
- excavation,
- manufacturing,
- power generation, gas and water production and supply,
- construction,
- geological prospecting and water conservancy,
- transport, storage, post and telecommunication services,
- wholesale and retail trade and food services,
- banking and insurance,
- real estate management,
- social services,
- health care, sports and social welfare,
- education, culture, art, radio, film and television,
- scientific research and polytechnical services,
- government agencies, party agencies and social organizations,
- others.
Occupational
Not relevant.
Others
Employment and wages data are classified by size of enterprise (large,
medium or small enterprises, based on the annual production capacity of
the enterprises, or on the original value of their fixed assets), type
of ownership (state, collective and other types of ownership, which
include joint ownership and foreign owned units), region, sector,
employee category, and employment status (fixed or permanent staff and
temporary workers). Employment data only are classified by sex.
Sample size and design
Statistical unit
The reporting units include industrial
enterprises, social institutions, township and village enterprises,
rural economic associations, government agencies, individually-owned
units, etc.
Survey universe / sample frame
This consists of all "units", regardless of the type of ownership.
Sample design
The inquiries consist of overall surveys which summarize the reports
submitted at each level and based on original records emanating from the
grass-root level units.
Field work
Data collection
This takes place in the last 12 days following the reference month or
quarter. For yearly reports, it takes place in early March of the year
following the reference year. Questionnaires are generally mailed or
sent by fax through the network of local and regional agencies.
Survey questionnaire
(Available in Chinese only).
Substitution of sampling units
Not relevant.
Data processing and editing
Data are centralized by computer. The responses are coded
according to the harmonized coding system provided by the state. Data
are edited through machine edit by the staff of the Ministry of
Labour and the State Statistical Bureau.
Types of estimates
Totals of employment and employees; total wage bill; and average
nominal and real wages of staff and workers.
Average nominal wages of staff and workers correspond to the quotient of
the total wage bill of staff and workers during the reference period
and the corresponding average number of staff and workers during the
same reference period.
Average real wages of staff and workers are obtained by dividing the
average nominal wages by the Cost-of-Living Index of staff and workers
during the same reference period.
Construction of indices
Indices of total wages and average annual wages, by type of unit's
ownership, in both nominal and real terms, are constructed on two bases:
(i) at present, 1978=100 and (ii) preceding year=100.
Weighting of sample results
Not relevant.
Adjustments
Non-response
None.
Other bias
None.
Use of benchmark data
Not relevant.
Seasonal variations
None.
Indicators of reliability of the estimates
Coverage of the sampling frame
The reporting system is compulsory and all types and sizes of units are
assumed to be covered.
Sampling error / sampling variance
Not relevant.
Non-response rate
Not available.
Non-sampling errors
Not available.
Conformity with other sources
Not relevant.
Available series
In monthly (and now quarterly) publications, regular tables include:
- monthly or quarterly number of workers and employees
by type of units' ownership, industry and
region;
- total monthly or quarterly
wage bill of workers and employees, by type of units'
ownership, industry and region.
In annual publications, detailed data are provided on:
- total employment by type of industry, urban and rural registration
and sector, type of ownership, by region;
- number of workers and employees at end of year by type of
ownership, industry, region, urban and rural areas, enterprise,
institution, state organ, etc.
- total wages for workers and employees by type of ownership and
industry, in absolute figures, percentages and evolution (wage
increases);
- average annual wage of staff and workers by sector and type of
ownership;
- nominal and real wage indices of staff and workers.
History of the survey
The statistical system of China was originally
designed to serve the needs of government economic planners and data are
frequently divided into categories that reflect administrative needs.
More recently, the collection and reporting of statistical data has
undergone adjustments in response to the reform of China's economy. The
terms and classifications used for statistical purposes have followed
these adjustments, and additional changes will probably occur in the
future.
In particular, the following changes have been brought to the
definitions and classifications of employees:
All persons employed are now distributed and classified as follows:
- all persons employed in units, of whom: women, and labour force in
rural areas;
- workers and employees of units, of whom: women, contract workers
and employees, and regular workers and employees; workers and employees
are further classified as long-term or temporary employees;
- other persons employed in units.
The definition of workers and employees corresponds to the former
definition of staff and workers.
The definition of contract workers and employees corresponds to
the former definition of staff and workers under contract.
Regular workers and employees are those who are formally assigned
by departments of labour and personnel affairs, as well as those whose
recruitment by units has been approved; their employment duration is
not fixed, and they cannot be dismissed unless special reasons and
provided certain formalities.
Temporary workers and employees refer to those who are employed
for less than one year, including workers and employees employed
temporarily or seasonally for less than one year, according to the
government regulations.
Other employees in units are those employees who are not reported
as workers and employees, but who are engaged in activities in units,
such as retired persons.
Documentation
State Statistical Bureau and China Statistical Publishing House:
Statistical Yearbook of China (annual; Beijing); published in
October of the year following the reference year. This publication
contains a number of explanatory notes (in English) on major indicators.
idem: Yearbook of Labour Statistics of China (annual; ibid.);
in Chinese only.
China Statistical Information and Consultancy Service Center: China
Monthly Statistics (monthly; ibid.).
Data can also be made available on diskette.
Additional data on the utilization of hours of work, which do not appear
in national publications, can be made available upon request.
Confidentiality / Reliability criteria
Not available.
Other information
Data supplied to the ILO for publication
The following data are published in the Yearbook of Labour
Statistics:
- number of employees by industry (Table 3B) and in manufacturing
(Table 5B);
- estimates of the general level of employment (Table 3A) and paid
employment in specific industries (Tables 5A, 6, 7 and 8), which
are based on the reporting system described above;
- average hours actually worked per month, for wage earners in
manufacturing, in Table 12A;
- average monthly earnings of employees, in Tables 16, 17A, 17B and 19
through 21.