Croatia

Title of the survey

Monthly survey on persons in paid employment and wages.

Organization responsible

Central Bureau of Statistics, Labour Statistics Section.

Periodicity of the survey

Monthly.

Objectives of the survey

To obtain information on the nominal and real changes in net and gross monthly earnings as well as on the number of persons in paid employment by activity.

The main users are Government departments; scientific, legal and social institutions, enterprises, individual users and international organizations.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Employment and earnings.

Reference period

Employment

The end of the reporting month.

Earnings

The month.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

The whole country.

Industrial

All branches of economic activity.

Establishments

All types of business units with legal entity, i.e. legal persons irrespective of the type of ownership, government bodies, administrative bodies and local government, associations and organisations. Excluded are crafts and trades, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and private farmers.

Persons

All persons in permanent paid employment. Free-lance workers are excluded.

Occupations

Data are not collected by individual occupation.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

Persons in permanent paid employment are defined as persons who have signed a work contract with the employer for a fixed or unspecified period of time, irrespective of whether they work full time or not.

Earnings

Data are collected on net monthly earnings and gross monthly earnings. Net monthly earnings include regular cash payments for hours actually worked, and remuneration for time not worked due to annual vacation, paid leave and holidays, professional training, military and civil duty, sick leave up to 42 days, reimbursement for annual leave, and payments for work stoppage against a person's will and due to no fault of his/her own, after deduction of employees' own contributions and taxes. Since 1994, they also include bonuses for workers' meals. Irregularly paid bonuses and premia and the value of payments in kind are excluded from net earnings.

Gross monthly earnings include all the components of net earnings, as well as other types of bonuses and premia for regular employment, and employees' own contributions to social security schemes, pension funds, etc. and taxes prescribed by law. Payments in kind are excluded.

Wage / salary rates

Not relevant

Hours of work

Not relevant.

International recommendations

The definition of gross earnings used in this survey corresponds to the international guidelines, but excludes the value of payments in kind. Net earnings correspond to the concept of net regular wages and salaries in cash.

Classifications

Industrial

Until 1996, data were classified according to the Uniform Classification of Economic Activities (UCEA). Since 1997, they are classified according to the National Classification of Economic Activities (NCEA), linked to the Statistical Classification of economic activities of the European Communities (NACE, Rev. 1) which itself is based on the International Standard Industrial Classification of all economic activities (ISIC), Rev. 3, 1990.

Occupational

Not relevant.

Others

Employment data by sex.

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The sampling and reporting unit is the business entity.

Survey universe / sample frame

The sample frame is the Business Register based on the annual reports filled in by business entities (see also Other sources of data). The sample frame is updated each year.

Sample design

The sample is purposive and covers units with the biggest number of persons in paid employment, i.e. 70% of persons in paid employment from each division of economic activity. The sample is updated each year.

Field work

Data collection

The survey is conducted through mailed questionnaires, which have to be returned to the Central Bureau of statistics by the 5th of the month following the reporting month.

Survey questionnaire

Available in Croatian.

Substitution of sampling units

In case of total non-response from a sampled business entity, the unit is replaced by another similar unit of the same employment size and economic activity.

Data processing and editing

The questionnaires are first checked manually by the Labour Statistics section. Then the responses are processed by the Center for automated data processing. Non-response or inconsistency is followed up by telephone calls.

Types of estimates

Number of persons in paid employment by economic activity.

Total and average of net and gross earnings by economic activity.

Average gross and net earnings are calculated by dividing the total gross or net payroll by the number of employees.

Construction of indices

Monthly index numbers of nominal and real gross and net earnings are constructed, by branch of economic activity, with base 1997 = 100.

Weighting of sample results

The survey results are unweighted. They represent 70% of persons in paid employment.

Adjustments

Non-response

None.

Other bias

None.

Use of benchmark data

None.

Seasonal variations

The survey results are not adjusted for seasonal variations.

Indicators of reliability of the estimates

Coverage of the sampling frame

Not available.

Sampling error / sampling variance

Not calculated.

Non-response rate

Not computed.

Non-sampling errors

Not available.

Conformity with other sources

Not relevant.

Available series

Published monthly data include:

Persons in paid employment, net and gross monthly earnings, by economic activity.

History of the survey

The survey began in 1963. Since 1994, the survey has collected data on gross earnings in addition to those on net earnings. Since 1997, the survey data are classified according to NCEA.

Documentation

Central Bureau of Statistics: Mjesecno statisticko iyvjesce (Monthly Statistical Report) (monthly, Zagreb)

idem: Statisticki ljetopis (Statistical Yearbook) (annual, ibid.)

Data on persons in paid employment and on earnings are published respectively one month and two months after the reference period of the survey.

Published data can also be made available on magnetic tape.

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

Data for individual units are kept confidential.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

Data on paid employment and annual averages of monthly earnings by economic activity are published in the Yearbook of Labour Statistics. The 1998 Yearbook showed statistics of net earnings. As from 1999, this publication will show average gross earnings.

The corresponding monthly data are published in the relevant tables of the Bulletin of Labour Statistics.

Other sources of data

(1) The Annual Survey of employed persons: an establishment survey conducted each year since 1996, with reference to the month of March; its main objective is to collect data on the number of persons employed according to sex, type of employment, age, professional attainment (i.e. education and skill level), hours of work and net earnings by level of professional attainment. Prior to 1996, this survey was half-yearly, as of March and September.

The survey consists of a full enumeration of all business units contained in the business register, in all forms of ownership, except the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, independent farmers, persons employed in crafts and trades and self-employed persons (who are covered by a special quarterly survey). The methods used for data collection and processing are identical to those of the monthly survey.

Employed persons are all physical persons employed for a fixed or unspecified period of time (temporarily or permanently), irrespective of whether they work full- or less than full-time. Employed persons are not classified by employment category. Employment data refer to the end of March.

The definition of net earnings by level of professional attainment for employees who worked the whole of the preceding calendar year is the same as that used in the Monthly Survey of employment and earnings. Earnings data refer to the whole of the previous calendar year.

The survey collects data on the number of hours of work during the whole of the previous calendar year, according to various concepts:

The survey also collects data on the number of standard working days, based on the procedure established by the Act on Employment.

Employment data are classified by place of work, branch of economic activity, type of ownership of business, sex, age, level of professional attainment, type of employment, duration of working hours and level of earnings. Earnings data are classified by branch of economic activity and level of professional attainment, and hours of work by branch of economic activity.

Data on average monthly hours actually worked of employees, by economic activity and in manufacturing, by industry group, are published in the ILO Yearbook of Labour Statistics.

(2) The Monthly Survey of average net earnings by occupation: this establishment survey is conducted every two years since 1973. It covers business units with more than 50 employees, irrespective of the type of ownership and the industrial coverage is the same as that of the above-mentioned surveys.

Data are collected on occupational net earnings for some 200 selected occupations based on ISCO-1988, for full-time employees who worked and received pay for all 12 months of the preceding year, including those who were temporarily absent with full pay due to professional training or sick leave (up to 42 days). The definition of net earnings corresponds to that of the other surveys.

This survey provides statistics of average net earnings by occupation:

Between 1963 and 1968, the survey was conducted by personal interviews. From 1969 to 1971, it became annual and from 1973 it has been conducted every two years. The most recent survey was conducted with reference to 1996 and its results (October 1996) are stored in the ILO database.