Denmark (1)

Title of the survey

Monthly statistics of industrial employment and labour costs

Organization responsible

Danmarks Statistik

Periodicity of the survey

Monthly.

Objectives of the survey

To indicate employment and wage cost trends for industrial wage and salary earners.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Employment, wage and salary costs, and hours of work.

Reference period

Employment: the end of the month or pay period. Wage costs and salary costs: the month. Hours of work: the pay period.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

The whole country.

Industrial

Mining and quarrying and manufacturing, defined in accordance with the International Standard Industrial Classification of all economic activities (ISIC), Rev. 2, 1968.

Establishments

Establishments with six or more persons employed.

Persons

Paid employees (wage earners and salaried employees).

Occupations

All occupations are covered but none are separately identified, apart from the large categories of wage earners and salaried employees.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

Data refer to employees who normally work 15 hours or more per week. Included are apprentices; young workers; piece workers; casual, temporary and seasonal workers; part-time workers working for at least 15 hours or more per week; and persons temporarily absent from work because of paid or unpaid vacation, sickness or accident. Excluded are working proprietors, working directors, unpaid family workers, homeworkers, commission agents, persons temporarily laid off and persons with a normal working week of less than 15 hours. Data are collected separately on wage earners and on salary earners. Wage earners are all skilled and unskilled manual workers, juvenile workers, apprentices and trainees, as well as persons who receive salary-type pay but whom the establishments regard as wage earners. Salary earners are all workers covered by the provisions of the Danish Act on Salaried Employees, or whom the establishments regard as salary earners, including executive staff, trainees and office workers under articles of apprenticeship. Excluded are agents, representatives and workers in similar occupations who are not appointed under a contract of employment as defined by the Act on Salaried Employees.

Earnings

Data are collected on total gross wage costs and total gross salary costs before deductions for income taxes. Wage costs include overtime pay, cost-of-living allowances, sick-day benefit paid by employers and provisions for holiday pay and irregularly paid bonuses and gratuities such as year-end, seasonal and similar bonuses, and profit-sharing bonuses. Earnings in kind are excluded. Salary costs consist of salaries, including cost-of-living allowances and other ordinary benefits such as overtime pay, and benefits payable at intervals exceeding one month, e.g. special holiday allowance, bonus fees and commissions.

Wage/salary rates

Not relevant.

Hours of work

Data are collected on hours actually worked, which comprise normal hours worked, overtime, time spent at the place of work on tasks such as the preparation of the workplace, repairs, maintenance, preparation and cleaning of tools, preparation of receipts, time sheets and reports, time corresponding to short rest periods at the workplace including tea and coffee breaks. Hours paid for but not worked, such as for holidays and days off in compensation for overtime, industrial disputes, etc., are excluded. The data on hours of work are collected only with respect to wage earners.

International recommendations

The definition of wage and salary costs corresponds to that of earnings contained in the international recommendations; it includes all components of earnings, whether paid on a regular or irregular basis. However, it excludes the value of payments in kind. The definition of hours actually worked conforms to the international standards.

Classifications

Industrial

The survey results are classified by economic activity, at the one- to two-digit level of the International Standard Industrial Classification of all economic activities (ISIC), Rev.2, 1968.

Occupational

Not relevant.

Others

The survey data are also classified by sex.

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The sampling unit is the establishment and reporting unit is the kind-of-activity unit.

Survey universe / sample frame

This consists of all units identified in the annual census of industry; the sample may therefore relate to census data that are up to two years old. In 1984, the frame comprised about 6,000 establishments.

Sample design

The sampling frame is stratified by economic activity (29 groups of ISIC, Rev. 2) and by employment size (five strata). All establishments with 200 or more employees are enumerated in full. A selection of smaller establishments is made using probability according to size. The sample consists of about ten per cent of units in the two lowest strata, about 50 per of those in the next stratum and about 80 per cent of those in the next. In 1984, the sample comprised about 2,450 establishments employing about 70 per cent of all persons employed in the activities covered.

Field work

Data collection

Data are collected by means of mailed questionnaires. There is a permanent survey organization.

Survey questionnaire

Not available.

Substitution of sampling units

Not available.

Data processing and editing

The data are processed by computer. There is no coding, but the results are edited and checked by computer, using range and consistency checks among other things.

Types of estimates

Estimates of total employment, total wage and salary costs and total hours actually worked. Average hours actually worked, average hourly wage costs and average monthly salary costs. Indices of employment, average hours actually worked and average hourly or monthly wage or salary costs.

Construction of indices

The figures on employment, wage or salary costs and hours actually worked are first raised and adjusted for the number of working days in each month (see Weighting). Index numbers are calculated as follows: Index of wage costs: the percentage ratio of average hourly wage costs in a given month to the average hourly wage costs in the base year. Index of salary costs: the percentage ratio of average salary costs in a given month to the average monthly salary costs in the base year. Index of hours actually worked: the ratio of workhours in a given month to workhours in a standard month of the base period. The indexes of wage costs and salary costs are aggregative and are influenced by factors such as employment size and the proportions and inter-industry movements of high-paid and low-paid workers. Moreover, in the case of wage costs, these are influenced by the number of hours actually worked, and it is not possible to distinguish wage drift from wage increases attributable to higher productivity. Salary costs are influenced, particularly in December, by benefits paid at intervals exceeding one month. The indexes of hours worked are aggregative and are influenced by factors such as the size and structure of employment, holidays and industrial disputes.

Weighting of sample results

The reported data are raised by Danmarks Statistik to the all-establishment level, so that the statistics represent the whole industry. The raising factors are determined by the results of the annual census of manufacturing industries. When the annual census is completed, the monthly statistics are revised.

Adjustments

Non-response

Missing data are dealt with by imputation.

Other bias

The results are not adjusted if data are collected during periods or situations of abnormal circumstances such as strike, lockout, fire, accident, flood).

Use of benchmark data

Not available.

Seasonal variations

Seasonally adjusted index numbers are calculated by means of the census method II (see Danmarks Statistik: Statistiske Efterretninger 1971, No. 64).

Indicators of reliability of the estimates

Coverage of the sampling frame

Not available.

Sampling error / sampling variance

Not available.

Non-response rate

Approximately 2 per cent, in terms of the number of enterprises.

Non-sampling errors

In the case of bias from other sources, a correction procedure is put into effect, based on the results for the preceding years.

Conformity with other sources

Not available.

Available series

The following tables are published:

History of the survey

The survey began in 1931, when only employment and hours of work data were collected. Wage and salary cost statistics were first collected in 1971.

Documentation

The employment data are published each month in: Danmarks Statistik: Nyt fra Danmarks Statistik (Copenhagen; monthly). idem: Statistikservice. Månedlig beskæftigelses- og lønstatistik for industri (ibid., monthly). idem: Statistiske Efterretninger. Industri og energi (ibid., monthly). A detailed methodological description of the industrial employment and labour cost statistics is given in Statistiske Efterretninger 1971 no. 51 and 1972 No. 80, and the first issue of each year of Månedlig beskæftigelses- og lønstatistik Longer time series are published in: idem: Statistisk tiårsoversigt (ibid., annual) and idem: Statistisk Årbog (ibid., annual).

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

Not available.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

The data on total employees in manufacturing up to 1993 are published in Table 5A of the Yearbook of Labour Statistics and in Table 3 of the Bulletin of Labour Statistics; the data on average hours actually worked in manufacturing up to 1993 are published in Tables 12A and 12B of the Yearbook.

Other sources of data

This survey was discontinued at the end of 1993 as a result of the revision of the Danish wages statistics system. Data from the new survey from 1994 onwards should be available for publication in the 1996 Yearbook of Labour Statistics.