France (1)

Title of the survey

Enquête trimestrielle sur l'activité et les conditions d'emploi de la main-d'oeuvre (ACEMO) (Quartery survey on the economic activity and working conditions of the labour force)

Organization responsible

Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Formation Professionnelle, Service des Etudes et de la Statistique, Direction de l'Animation de la Recherche, des Etudes et des Statistiques (DARES)

Periodicity of the survey

Quarterly, in January, April, July and October.

Objectives of the survey

To assess trends in employment, wage rates and hours of work. To determine the percentage of workers employed on a temporary basis, on fixed-term contracts and on a part-time bases.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Employment, wage rates and hours of work.

Reference period

Employment: the last day of the preceding quarter. Wage rates: the first day of the reference quarter. Hours of work: the first week of the reference quarter.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

Whole country (Metropolitan France).

Industrial

Manufacturing; construction; wholesale and retail trade; restaurants and hotels; transport, storage and communication; electricity, gas and water; financing, insurance, real estate and business services; community, social and personal services. The survey does not cover agriculture, mining and quarrying, public administration, private domestic services, foreign diplomatic representations or international organizations.

Establishments

Establishments employing 11 or more workers in the private non-agricultural sector.

Persons

Employees.

Occupations

The survey does not collect data by occupation, but 16 skill groups are identified.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

The survey concerns registered full-time or part-time employees with an employment contract, in force or suspended (including apprentices), whether the contract is fixed-term or permanent. Also included are commission agents (except commercial travellers, representatives and brokers representing more than one firm (VRP multicartes), workers from temporary work agencies, casual and seasonal workers, as well as persons temporarily absent from work because of paid or unpaid leave, temporary or indefinite lay-off, industrial dispute (strike or lockout), sickness or injury. The following groups are identified separately:

full-time employees (even if on short-time):
- manual workers;
- others (clerical workers, technicians, supervisors and managers);
part-time employees:
- manual workers;
- others (clerical workers, technicians, supervisors and managers).

Temporary workers and employees on fixed-term contracts are enumerated separately. Excluded from employees are trainees, home workers, workers sub-contracted from other companies or firms, commercial travellers, representatives and brokers representing more than one firm (included with home workers), unpaid family workers and persons temporarily absent from work because of military service.

Earnings

Not relevant.

Wage/salary rates

These data refer to gross basic monthly wage or salary, as applied in the establishment for persons employed on a full-time basis. They exclude all bonuses and gratuities as well as overtime pay. They are collected for each of the following 16 levels of occupational categories:

unskilled manual workers: three levels;
skilled manual workers: four levels:
supervisors (production): two levels;
administrative and sales workers: three levels;
technicians: two levels;
engineers and managers: two levels.

For each of these categories and levels, and using a grid which classifies workers by skill level, the establishment declares the basic wage for a job considered to be representative of the category, which is used for each successive survey.

Hours of work

The survey covers two aspects of hours of work:

basic monthly hours of work on which the basic monthly wage is calculated for each of the five major categories (manual workers, supervisors, administrative and sales workers, technicians, and engineers and managers), expressed in hours and hundredths of hours. This is the theoretical concept of hours of work offered for full-time posts.
actual hours of work per week: the actual number of hours worked in the establishment during the reference week (taking into account, where necessary, the effects of the implementation of an agreement on working hours adjustment or of increased or reduced activity for full-time employees, separately for manual and non-manual workers. If the reference week was affected by other reasons (strikes, bad weather, breakdowns, etc.), the actual number of hours worked in the last undisturbed week are taken into account.

Actual hours of work therefore exclude hours lost for technical or economic reasons, but include hours paid for but not worked, for personal reasons, such as sickness or personal leave.

International recommendations

The definition of the basic monthly wage corresponds to the concept of wage or salary rates. It is limited to the basic rate, as it excludes all bonuses and allowances, even if these are guaranteed. The concept of theoretical hours of work corresponds to that of normal hours of work, for the purpose of calculating wage and salary rates. The concepts of actual hours of work, as used in this survey corresponds to that of hours offered in the course of a working week not affected by accidental causes. This concept, defined by the Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT), takes the enterprise rather than the worker as a point of reference.

Classifications

Industrial

Until April 1993, the survey was conducted on the basis of the Nomenclature d'Activités et de Produits (NAP), in 15 and 40 groups. Since April 1993, the data have been classified according to the Nomenclature d'activité française (NAF). The NAF is an adaptation of the Standard Classification of Economic Activities of the European Communities (NACE), Rev. 1, 1990, with the most detailed European headings further subdivided. They are published using 16 and 36 groups. The NACE Rev. 1 is compatible with the International Standard Industrial Classification of all economic activities (ISIC), Rev. 3, 1990.

Occupational

The data are classified by skill group. This classification is not linked to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO).

Others

The data on employment are classified according to type of employment contract (temporary, fixed-term, part-time) and size of establishment (11 to 49, 50 to 199, 200 to 499 and 500 or more employees).

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The survey unit is the establishment, defined as a group of employees working at a single geographical location under the authority of one legal entity (enterprise or individual employer). In the case of certain large enterprises comprising several establishments, bilateral agreements allow the enterprise to respond for all units.

Survey universe / sample frame

The sample frame is the Ministry's list of establishments, based on the Système informatique pour le Répertoire des Entreprises et des Etablissements (SIRENE) of the Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (INSEE). The SIRENE database is updated daily to take into account the foundation, modification and closure of enterprises (over 10,000 daily updates), on the basis of official statements issued by the chambers of industry and commerce, Clerks' Offices of the Commercial Tribunals, tax offices, etc., and by INSEE surveys. From January 1996 on, the database on establishments will be produced directly by the INSEE OCEAN database (Outil de coordination des enquêtes annuelles d'entreprises).

Sample design

The survey covers a sample of about 65,000 establishments, including all establishments with 50 or more employees and one-fourth of those with 11 to 49 employees; the latter are stratified by area, economic activity according to 100 classes of the NAP, and size of establishment. The sample is updated every three months for establishments with 50 or more employees, and every three years for those with 11 to 49 employees. From 1st January 1996, it is planned to introduce a system whereby 1/20 of the sample surveyed will be rotated every quarter.

Field work

Data collection

The survey is conducted by post. A permanent organization is responsible for collecting the data. A reminder is automatically sent out to establishments that have not replied by the end of the survey month.

Survey questionnaire

This consists of four main sections designed to collect data on:

actual hours of work by manual and non-manual workers during the reference week,
employees on the last day of the quarter, by category (manual or non-manual, full-time or part-time) and temporary workers,
basic monthly hours of work, for the five major employee categories,
basic monthly wage or salary, by category and skill level.

Additional information is collected on the collective agreement, where relevant, for each establishment and on the back of the questionnaire there is a classification grid covering workers by skill level.

Substitution of sampling units

In the case of non-response (because of termination of activity, change of address, refusal to respond, etc), sampling units are not replaced (see also Adjustments for non-response).

Data processing and editing

The data are processed manually and by computer. There is no manual coding. In addition to certain checks of ranges, trends and standard deviations, the data are verified manually and by computer, and the establishment is contacted by telephone or letter if there are gaps or inconsistencies in the data.

Types of estimates

employment: quarterly trends and distribution by branch of economic activity;
hourly and monthly wage rates: quarterly and annual trends;
hourly and monthly indices of wage and salary rates;
hours of work: average actual and theoretical number of hours.

The hourly rate by level for each of the 16 categories of employees is obtained by dividing the relevant basic monthly wage by the corresponding basic monthly hours. Average actual hours of work (per week) are obtained by dividing the total number of hours actually worked by the number of employees concerned.

Construction of indices

The survey data are used to calculate:

indices of trends in employment and
indices of trends in wage rates,

by stratum (NAF rearranged into about 100 groups), weighted by the number of employees for the larger strata and by number of establishments for the others. The strata are then aggregated according to the weighting procedure described below.

Weighting of sample results

The weights used are the total number of employees reported by the UNEDIC (Union nationale pour l'emploi dans l'industrie et le commerce) and outside the UNEDIC, at 31 December of the last year available at the time of the change of base (1992 for results classified by NAF; 1989 for those classified by NAP, base 100), and the structure of the employed workforce by skill level, derived from a specified survey (the most recent was conducted in 1993).

Adjustments

Non-response

None.

Other bias

Not relevant.

Use of benchmark data

INSEE uses benchmark data to adjust the results on the number of employees. The gross results of the survey are adjusted for the bias resulting from the survey coverage (establishments with more than ten employees) using the annual statistics of the UNEDIC. The trends are applied to the employment levels of the preceding quarter, which had been benchmarked on the results of the 1990 census.

Seasonal variations

The data on employees are corrected for seasonal variations by INSEE.

Indicators of reliability of the estimates

Coverage of the sampling frame

The SIRENE database is the official directory in which all enterprises in France, with all their establishments, are registered. It covers about 3,300,000 active enterprises and about 3,800,000 active establishments.

Sampling error / sampling variance

Not calculated

Non-response rate

About 55 per cent in terms of establishments.

Non-sampling errors

Certain errors detected in the responses from establishments may give rise to difficulties in data processing. Such errors chiefly concern: monthly hours of work (certain establishments indicate basic weekly instead of monthly hours); basic monthly wages and salaries; and failure to respond in cases where numbers of employees or wage levels have remained stable in relation to the preceding quarter. When such errors are detected, the establishments receive a letter reminding them of the basic rules of the survey, in order to ensure greater consistency in the information supplied.

Conformity with other sources

The INSEE compares the estimated number of employees from the survey with the statistics produced by the UNEDIC and ACEMO surveys (according to sector).

Available series

The main quarterly tables published by the Ministry of Labour are as follows:

trends in the number of employees;
actual hours of work per week for manual and non-manual employees and all employees, by economic activity;
distribution of employees according to hours of work;
indices of hourly wage rates of manual workers, by economic activity and skill level;
Indices of basic monthly wages and salaries for each category of employee and for all employees, by economic activity and skill level.

The main quarterly tables published by INSEE are as follows:

hours of work (theoretical or usually applied) per week, corrected for seasonal variations, by economic activity;
numbers of employees by economic activity;
indices of hourly wage rates of manual workers, by economic activity;
indices of monthly salary rates of non-manual workers, and monthly wage or salary rates for all employees;
indices of hourly wage rates of manual workers and basic monthly wages by skill level.

History of the survey

The quarterly ACEMO was first conducted in 1945. Electronic data-processing was introduced in 1973 and the processing system was revised in 1985. New bases and new employee weights were introduced in 1973, 1985, 1988 and 1991. Prior to 1985, the survey covered all establishments with more than 49 employees, and one-third of establishments with 10 to 49 employees. The information requested concerned the basic hourly wage rate for each level of skill for manual workers. In April 1985, the survey was redesigned and changes were made at three levels: in the questions asked, at the level of conditions in which the survey is carried out, and at the level of the data produced.

the basic hourly wage rate by skill level was no longer requested and was replaced by basic monthly wage and the corresponding basic monthly hours of work;
the survey questionnaire was broadened; the questions refer to all manual and non-manual workers;
the sample covers one-fourth of establishments with 11 to 49 employees (instead of one-third);
the weights used to calculate the average values and the indices were updated;
the results are processed to a very detailed level of the NAP base 100 and the principle groups of economic activities selected for the publication of the results are indicated.

Since 1990, the main survey results have also been published each year by branch agreement, using the CRIS classification (Conventions regroupées pour l'information statistique). The results relate to establishments applying a branch collective agreement and a weighting pattern is applied in which the number of employees from the survey are benchmarked using data from the UNEDI. As from the first half of 1993, the Nomenclature des activities et produits (NAP 73) which was used in France from 1973 has been replaced by the Nomenclature des activités françaises (NAF). The quarterly ACEMO survey results have been published using the NAF since April 1993.

Documentation

Ministère du Travail, de l'Emploi et de la Formation professionnelle, Direction de l'Animation de la Recherche, des Etudes et des Statistiques (DARES): Bulletin mensuel des statistiques du travail (monthly; Paris). idem: Premières informations. Three issues per quarter: Résultats provisoires, Effectifs salariés and Salaires et durée du travail. The results are published respectively five, nine and eleven weeks after the survey reference period. Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes économiques (INSEE): Bulletin mensuel de statistique (monthly; ibid.). Results not appearing in the national publications (such as the percentage of employees under fixed-term contract or temporary contract) may be obtained on request addressed to the Ministère du Travail. They are available as ASCII or MULTIPLAN tables.

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

In accordance with Act No. 51-711 of 7 June 1951 (amended), concerning obligation, co-ordination and secrecy in statistical matters, the data collected are covered by statistical secrecy and may under no circumstances be used for purposes of tax inspection or economic repression.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

Data on average hours actually worked (manual and non-manual workers) and average hourly wage rates of manual workers in non-agricultural activities and manufacturing are published in Tables 11, 12A and 12B, and 16 and 17A of the Yearbook of Labour Statistics. The quarterly data are published in the corresponding tables of the Bulletin of Labour Statistics.