Fiji

Title of the survey

Annual Employment Survey, supplemented by the Quarterly Employment Survey.

Organization responsible

Bureau of Statistics

Periodicity of the survey

Annual and quarterly, respectively.

Objectives of the survey

To provide continuous series of comparable data on paid employment, hours of work, earnings by industry, occupational and economic activity distribution, etc.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

The June survey covers employment, earnings and hours of work. The quarterly survey covers employment only.

Reference period

The last payweek of June for the annual survey. The last pay period of March, June, September and December for the quarterly survey.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

The whole country.

Industrial

All branches of economic activity.

Establishments

All types and sizes of establishments.

Persons

Employees who work for pay during the reference period, as well as those who have a job but are not at work during the reference period, due to temporary illness, vacation or industrial dispute. The surveys therefore exclude seasonal or casual workers whose period of employment does not coincide with the reference period of the survey, as well as working proprietors and unpaid family workers.

Occupations

The June survey collects employment data by occupation. All occupations are covered. The actual occupations reported on are those filled in by the surveyed employees.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

The term employees covers all persons in regular and casual employment during the reference period, including: The following categories of employees are separately identified: In the June survey, data on employees are collected by sex, race, age (year of birth) and status (local and expatriate).

Earnings

In the June survey, data are collected on gross cash earnings of each individual wage earner in the last payweek, and gross annual salary of each individual salaried employee. Gross cash earnings of wage earners are defined as the total money earned by a wage earner before any deductions are made. They include overtime payments, allowances such as shift, height and meal allowances, penalty rates, commissions and other cash remuneration actually earned during the reference week. Gross annual salary of salaried employees are defined as the total of basic salary and all cash allowances paid to salaried employees. In the quarterly survey, data are collected to total gross wages and salaries paid to all wage earners and salaried employees, separately. Gross wages and salaries include overtime, sick and holiday pay, bonuses, payments under piece-rate schemes, all allowances, severance and redundancy, sales, commission paid to own employees and directors' fees, etc.

Wage/salary rates

In the June survey, data are collected on the normal hourly rate of each individual wage earner, defined as the basic wage rate for normal or ordinary hours of work, excluding any allowances or premiums.

Hours of work

In the June survey, data are collected on normal hours worked per week by each individual wage earner, defined as the number of hours ordinarily worked in a full week at the ordinary or normal rate of pay. Normal hours of work are those fixed by collective agreements or establishments' internal regulations.

International recommendations

The definitions of gross cash weekly earnings and hourly wage rates of wage earners, and that of annual salary of salaried employees, comply with the international guidelines on earnings with the following exception: the value of payments in kind is excluded from data collection. The concept of normal hours of work of wage earners conforms to the international guidelines.

Classifications

Industrial

The survey data are classified according to the Fiji Standard Industrial Classification (FSIC-1984), which is based on the International Standard Industrial Classification of all economic activities (ISIC), Rev.2, 1968 at the four-digit level.

Occupational

Employment and earnings data are classified according to nine occupational categories, which are based on the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-68).

Others

The survey data are classified by sector, type of ownership, employment size of establishments, location, employee category (wage earners and salaried employees), and employee characteristics (sex, age group, ethnic group).

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The sampling and reporting unit is the establishment, defined as an entity engaged in one (or predominantly one) kind of economic activity, employing workers and maintaining separate records for each worker, and located at a single physical location or base from which work is carried out. Central government is treated as one establishment.

Survey universe / sample frame

This consists of a Register of Establishments which is maintained by the Bureau of Statistics. The Register is regularly revised and updated with information obtained from the Registrar of Companies and the Fiji National Providence Fund (FNPF). In addition, the type of company operations is ascertained from questionnaires sent directly to new companies and through town councils and rural local authorities. The Register of Establishments covers some 13,300 establishments.

Sample design

The June survey is based on a complete enumeration of all establishments with and without paid employees. The 1989 survey covered 12,943 establishments. The Quarterly Employment survey is a 5 per cent sample survey. The sample is stratified by type of activity and size group.

Field work

Data collection

Postal questionnaires are completed by each establishment and returned to the Bureau of Statistics in prepaid return envelopes. Since 1985, records relating to employees of the central government are extracted directly from the payroll records held at the Government's Computer Centre.

Survey questionnaire

For the June survey, the questionnaire consists of two parts: The questionnaire used for the quarterly survey consists of a single sheet of paper which includes an introductory statement about the survey, a table, and definitions of terms on the back of the table. The table is designed to collect data on:

Substitution of sampling units

Non-respondents are not replaced.

Data processing and editing

Spreadsheets are used to process the data from the quarterly survey. (No other information is available).

Types of estimates

Average hourly wage rates and average weekly earnings of wage earners, and average annual salary of salaried employees by industry and occupation are obtained by dividing the total amount of basic wage rates, weekly earnings or annual salary in that industry or occupation by the corresponding number of wage earners or salaried employees. Daily wage rates are obtained by multiplying hourly mean wages by eight hours. Two sets of employment data are processed from the June survey:

Construction of indices

Indices of mean hourly wage rates of wage earners and average annual salary of salaried employees are computed, by industry groups. The bases are 1965=100 and 1969=100 respectively.

Weighting of sample results

Not relevant for the June survey.

Adjustments

Non-response

For non-responding establishments, estimates of employment are based on data obtained from previous surveys.

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

Every effort is made to update the Register of Establishments so that it cover all establishments with or without paid employees.

Sampling error / sampling variance

Not relevant to the June survey.

Non-response rate

The overall non-response rate of the June 1989 survey was 41.5 percent. Half of the non-responding establishments consisted of "non-employers", whose workers were working proprietors and unpaid family workers. The other half consisted of establishments which were known to have had employees from previous surveys. The 1991 and 1992 June surveys were characterized by a very low response rate.

Non-sampling errors

Not available.

Conformity with other sources

Not relevant.

Available series

Published tables from the June survey include detailed estimates of paid employment by FSIC major group, employment size, ethnic group, location, broad occupational category, age, sex and type of organization; distribution of wage earners and salaried employees by FSIC group, wage rates, earnings and annual salary; and index numbers of mean hourly wage rates and average annual salary. Published tables from the quarterly sample survey provide employment data by industry group only.

History of the survey

Employment Surveys have been conducted annually since 1966 by the Bureau of Statistics under the Statistics Act (Cap. 71). Since May 1975, the Annual survey is complemented by a simplified survey of employment which seeks information only on the number of wage and salary earners in paid employment. Between 1975 and 1988, this complementary survey was conducted in December of each year. Since 1989, its periodicity has become quarterly. Prior to 1984, the industrial classification was the ISIC tailored to meet the economic conditions prevailing in Fiji over the previous 15 years. FSIC was introduced in 1984. From 1985 onwards, records relating to employees of the central government are extracted directly from the payroll record held at the Government's Computer Centre. Since 1988, central government has been treated as one establishment. As a consequence, the number of establishments and employees in certain industrial sectors has declined considerably, which should be taken into account when comparing data with the previous years.

Documentation

Bureau of Statistics: Annual Employment Survey (annual, Suva). The results of the June survey are published some three years after the survey reference period. The 1991 and 1992 issues of this publication have not been compiled due to a very low response rate and manpower resource limitations. idem: Current Economic Statistics (quarterly, ibid.); contains the results of the quarterly sample surveys and some of the results of the June survey; idem: Statistical News (quarterly, ibid.); each quarter, one of these leaflets presents the results of the quarterly survey on employment.

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

The data are used for statistical purposes only. Any release of information will only be in accordance with the Statistics Act. The release of data on individual establishments is not allowed.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

The following data are published in the Yearbook of Labour Statistics: Quarterly series of paid employment (employees) derived from the Quarterly Employment Survey are published in Tables 1 to 3 of the Bulletin of Labour Statistics.