Egypt

Title of the survey

Employment, wages and hours of work.

Organization responsible

Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

Periodicity of the survey

Annual, in October.

Objectives of the survey

To measure employment, average wages and hours of work according to economic activities, occupational groups and governorates.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Employment, earnings and hours of work.

Reference period

For wage earners (i.e. manual or production workers): the first week of October; for salaried employees: the whole month.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

The whole country.

Industrial

All branches of economic activity.

Establishments

All establishments employing ten or more persons in the private sector and all establishments of the public sector.

Persons

All adult (15 years and over) persons employed.

Occupations

All occupations are covered. The actual occupations reported on are those performed by employees in the surveyed establishments.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

All persons employed include working proprietors, working directors, wage earners and salaried employees. Piece workers, casual workers and persons temporarily absent from work because of paid vacation, paid leave, etc. are also included but not separately identified. Excluded are apprentices, trainees, workers on probation, commission agents, home workers, workers sub-contracted from other companies or firms, workers from temporary work agencies, temporary, seasonal and part-time workers, unpaid family workers; persons temporarily absent from work without pay (for temporary lay off, strike and lock-out, sickness or accident, etc.) and persons temporarily present on payroll during notice period preceding retirement, resignation or dismissal. For each occupation performed in the establishment, data are collected separately on the number of wage earners and salaried employees, by sex.

Earnings

Data are collected on gross weekly or monthly earnings of wage earners and salaried employees, respectively, by occupation and sex. Gross earnings include pay for normal time worked, premium pay for overtime and shift work, incentive pay, regular bonuses, cost-of-living or dearness allowance, as well as remuneration for time not worked. Earnings exclude irregularly paid bonuses and the value of payments in kind. Information is also collected on the distribution of employees by occupation and according to earnings ranges.

Wage/salary rates

Not relevant.

Hours of work

Data relate to hours paid for. They include normal hours of work and overtime. Normal hours of work include inactive periods of time spent at the workplace, time spent on short rest breaks, and hours of paid absences. Hours paid for exclude the time corresponding to study or training leave, layoff or short-time working, industrial disputes, disciplinary suspension, time devoted to trade unions and employers' organisations activities and time spent on travel from home to work and vice versa. Data on hours of work are collected by occupation, separately for wage earners and salaried employees, and by sex.

International recommendations

The definition of gross earnings used in this survey corresponds to the concept of earnings in cash used in current statistics of earnings. It excludes irregular payments and bonuses, as well as the value of payments in kind. The definition of hours of work corresponds to the concept of hours paid for.

Classifications

Industrial

Data are classified at the three-digit level of the International Standard Industrial Classification of all economic activities (ISIC), Rev.2, 1968.

Occupational

Data are classified at the three-digit level of the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-68).

Others

The survey data are classified by region (governorate) and by sex.

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The establishment, defined as a unit engaged in an economic activity at a single physical location, whether the owner is a person or a company. When a company has more than one establishment engaged in the same activity in different geographical areas, each of them is considered as an establishment.

Survey universe / sample frame

This consists of the Establishments Census which covers all public sector establishments and all private sector establishments with at least ten employees. The frame is updated annually through field work, by adding the new establishments and subtracting those which have gone out of business.

Sample design

The survey is based on a complete enumeration of establishments.

Field work

Data collection

Data are collected in January of each year by personal visits made by enumerators who are permanent members of CAPMAS.

Survey questionnaire

This consists of three main parts: Instructions are provided along with the questionnaire and a manual is available to enumerators.

Substitution of sampling units

Not relevant.

Data processing and editing

Data are coded manually and verified by data processing staff. Data are edited through field work, manual office editing and computer editing. In the case of inconsistent data, there is follow-up by enumerators' visit.

Types of estimates

Number of employees by category (wage earners and salaried employees); average occupational earnings and hours of work by occupational groups; and distribution of employees by category and according to earnings ranges.

Construction of indices

Index numbers are not constructed.

Weighting of sample results

Not relevant.

Adjustments

Non-response

No adjustments are made for non-response.

Other bias

No adjustments are made for any other bias.

Use of benchmark data

Not relevant.

Seasonal variations

No adjustments are made for seasonal variations.

Indicators of reliability of the estimates

Coverage of the sampling frame

Not available.

Sampling error / sampling variance

Not relevant.

Non-response rate

Not available.

Non-sampling errors

Not available.

Conformity with other sources

Not available.

Available series

The following tables are prepared: cross-classified by economic activity, governorate and occupational group.

History of the survey

The survey was introduced in 1942. In 1965, the periodicity changed from half-yearly (January and July) to annual (October).

Documentation

Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS): Report on Employment, Wages and Hours of Work (annual; Cairo); published (in Arabic) approximately three years after the survey reference year.

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

Publication of the survey results is subject to confidentiality rules.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

Statistics of average weekly hours paid for and weekly earnings of wage earners in major divisions of industry, are published in Tables 11 to 21 of the Yearbook of Labour Statistics.