Hungary - 1

Title of the survey

Employment and Earnings Survey, as part of the Institutional Labour Data Collection System.

Organization responsible

Hungarian Central Statistical Office (CSO).

Periodicity of the survey

Monthly and annually.

Objectives of the survey

To measure the number of employees, average hours of work and average gross and net earnings.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Employment, earnings and hours of work.

Reference period

The full month in the monthly survey; the whole year in the annual survey.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

The whole country.

Industrial

All branches of economic activity are covered since 1997.

Establishments

Since 1998, the monthly survey covers enterprises with more than 5 employees and all publicly financed activities and institutions.

Between 1994 and 1998, it covered enterprises with more than 10 employees and all publicly financed activities and institutions.

The annual survey covers economic units with more than 20 employees and all publicly financed activities and institutions.

Persons

Paid employees aged 15 and above. Excluded are unpaid contributing family workers and self-employed persons.

Occupations

Data are not collected by individual occupation.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

Employees are all persons defined as staff by the Labour Code, i.e. persons with a legal work relationship with an employer. This definition covers all persons in paid employment (whether full- or part-time) for a period exceeding five working days (since 1999, for a minimum of 60 hours of work according to the work contract).

They include working proprietors, partners and directors who receive a salary, wage earners, salaried employees, paid skilled apprentices, trainees, workers on probation and piece workers; home workers, outworkers, workers sub-contracted from other enterprises or from temporary work agencies, temporary and seasonal workers, as well as employed pensioners. They also include persons who do not belong to the staff according to the Labour Code, but who work for a given employer for a long period (e.g. students engaged for vacation, employees borrowed from other employers) and unpaid or unskilled apprentices, commission agents, and casual workers, provided they fulfil the provisions mentioned in the previous paragraph.

The statistical staff number of employees includes persons belonging to the legal staff number defined by the Labour Code, excluding those who are on leave for certain purposes (e.g. maternity leave, child-care leave, active military service, sick leave and unpaid leave longer than one month (prior to 1999, longer than three months), as well as those who do not belong to the staff as defined by the Labour Code, but who work for the employer continuously under certain conditions (e.g. students engaged for vacation, employees borrowed from other employers, etc.).

The following categories of employees are separately identified: manual workers, non-manual workers, home workers, and full- and part-time employees. Prior to 1999, working pensioners (i.e. retired employees who are employed without suspension of their pension) were also separately identified; since 1999, they are treated as full-time or part-time employees, where relevant.

Full-time employees are employees whose working time (daily, weekly, monthly or yearly) is equal to that fixed by the Labour Code or laid down in labour relations regulations, and to the working time which is generally characteristic of a given employer. The number of full-time employees includes persons who have a full-time work contract with an employer but who obtain a reduction of working time, such as mothers with a young child or workers affected by a temporary reduction of working time due to economic difficulties.

Part-time employees are those whose hours of work are fixed by collective agreement and are lower than the legal hours of work.

The monthly reports collect data on the average number of employees according to the following categories:

  1. full-time and non-full-time workers, these two groups being further classified by manual and non- manual category,
  2. persons employed as second or more jobholders,
  3. persons employed off-site, i.e. persons who work less than five workdays or persons whose usual monthly hours of work are less than 60 hours, and
  4. other persons employed, i.e. working owners and unpaid contributing family workers.
The annual reports collect data on average employment for the following categories:
  1. full-time workers, classified by manual and non-manual category and by sex,
  2. non-full-time workers, who include part-time workers, home workers and apprentices.

Earnings

Gross earnings include (i) direct wages and salaries paid regularly in cash, (ii) remuneration for time not worked, (iii) irregularly paid bonuses, premiums and wage supplements, 13th month salary, etc., (iv) the value of earnings in kind (food, drink and fuel) and (v) payments made from the enterprise's profit, before deduction of employees' personal income tax, linear pension and health contributions and other employees' contributions.

Since 1999, data are also collected on the amounts paid directly by the employer in the form of cost-of- living, housing, transport and similar allowances. However, at the national level, the statistics of average earnings exclude these components.

The monthly reports collect data on total gross earnings for the month, for all employees and separately for:

  1. full-time and non-full-time workers, classified by manual and non-manual category,
  2. persons employed as second or more jobholders,
  3. persons employed off-site, as defined above under Employment.
The annual reports collect data on total gross earnings for the 12 months, for:
  1. full-time workers, classified by manual and non-manual category and by sex,
  2. non-full-time workers, as defined above under Employment.

Wage / salary rates

Not relevant.

Hours of work

Since 1998, data have been collected monthly on hours actually worked (including overtime) per month by all employees and separately, by full-time manual workers, and on the number of overtime hours.

Prior to 1998, they were collected for full-time manual workers in industry only (i.e. mining and quarrying, manufacturing, electricity, gas, steam and hot water).

Hours actually worked include hours worked during normal periods of work; paid overtime; time spent at the workplace on work such as preparation of the workplace, repairs and maintenance, preparation and cleaning of tools, and preparation of receipts, time sheets and reports; time spent at the place of work waiting or standing by for such reasons as lack of supply of work, breakdown of machinery, or accidents, etc.; and time corresponding to short rest periods at the workplace, including tea and coffee breaks.

Excluded are unpaid overtime hours, hours paid for but not worked, such as paid annual leave, paid public holidays, paid sick leave, etc. and time spent on travel from home to work and vice versa.

International recommendations

The definition of hours actually worked applied in this survey corresponds to the international guidelines. The definition of earnings also conforms to the international guidelines with the following exception: at the national level, the statistics of earnings exclude the allowances (for housing, transport, etc.) paid directly by the employer.

Classifications

Industrial

Data are classified according to the 1992 Hungarian Standard Industrial Classification of all economic activities, which is based on the International Standard Industrial Classification of all economic activities (ISIC), Rev.3 at the four-digit level.

Occupational

Not relevant.

Others

Data are classified according to the employment size of enterprises: 5 to 20 employees, 21 to 50, 51 to 300 and more than 300 employees. Employment, earnings and hours data are also classified by employee category (manual and non-manual), type of contract (full-time and non-full-time workers). Employment and earnings data are classified by sex.

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The sampling and reporting unit is the enterprise, defined as an economic unit which is autonomous in its financial and other decisions. It may consist of one or more establishments or local units and may conduct various activities, but it is classified according to the main activity.

Survey universe / sample frame

This consists of the Business Directory. All enterprises have to register when they are created and subsequently, to report any change of name or address within eight days of the change. Once enterprises have been registered, they receive a statistical serial number and are informed of their obligation to report on labour data as from the next statistical period. The Directory is therefore updated a continuous basis.

In 1997, the Business Directory included some 26,500 enterprises distributed as follows:

In 1998, it included over 45,000 enterprises with 5 to 50 employees.

Sample design

Since 1994, in the monthly survey, all enterprises with more than 50 employees, publicly financed institutions and social insurance institutions, are covered by complete enumeration. Between 1994 and 1998, enterprises with 11 to 50 employees were covered on a sample basis. Since 1998, the sample part includes enterprises with 5 to 50 employees.

The sample is stratified by industry group (at the two-digit level of ISIC, Rev.3) and employment size. Preliminary estimates of the standard deviation by stratum are calculated and the sample size is determined on the basis of the required confidence level.

In 1998, 13,700 enterprises with 5 to 50 employees were included in the sample (sampling fraction: 30%).

The annual survey consists of a complete enumeration of enterprises employing more than 20 employees.

Field work

Data collection

Data are collected by mailed questionnaires and instructions are provided to enterprises along with the questionnaires. Monthly labour reports have to be submitted to the CSO before the 25th of the following month. Annual data collection takes place during the second month following the reporting year.

Survey questionnaire

The monthly and annual labour reports collect data on average employment, total gross earnings and hours actually worked, according to the categories mentioned above under Concepts and definitions.

Substitution of sampling units

Not applied.

Data processing and editing

Data are processed by computer and undergo machine-editing procedures. Missing or inconsistent data are checked by telephone with respondents. Consistency checks of numerical data are performed (numerical checking of the total and sub-total lines) and thresholds are fixed (e.g. average earnings cannot be smaller than a given percentage of the official minimum wage).

Types of estimates

Average number of employees by category (full-time and non-full-time; manual and non-manual workers);

Average gross and net earnings of full-time employees, by category, and the corresponding indices;

Average monthly hours actually worked by all employees, and separately by full-time manual employees.

Average gross monthly earnings are computed by dividing the total monthly remuneration for the reference period by the average number of employees on the payroll during that period.

Average net monthly earnings are derived after deduction of employees' personal income tax, social security contributions (to health and retirement schemes) and contributions to the solidarity fund, according to the prevailing rates fixed by regulations.

Average hours of work are obtained by dividing the total number of hours worked during the month by the average number of employees on the payroll during that month.

Construction of indices

Indices of average gross and net monthly earnings are computed monthly.

A real wage index is computed as the quotient of the net earnings index to the consumer price index.

Weighting of sample results

The sample results are grossed up using the reciprocal of the sampling fraction.

Adjustments

Non-response

Some adjustments are made.

Other bias

No other adjustments are made.

Use of benchmark data

Not relevant.

Seasonal variations

The data are not seasonally adjusted.

Indicators of reliability of the estimates

Coverage of the sampling frame

Not known.

Sampling error / sampling variance

The standard error is calculated annually.

Non-response rate

It varies with the size of enterprises. It is between 20 and 22% for enterprises with more than 50 employees, around 20% for enterprises with 21 to 50 employees, and 60% for smaller enterprises.

Non-sampling errors

Not known.

Conformity with other sources

Not relevant.

Available series

Published monthly data include:

Average number of employees by branch of economic activity and employee category;

Average monthly gross and net earnings of full-time employees, by branch of economic activity;

Total and average monthly hours actually worked by full-time manual employees.

Published yearly data include:

Economic activity of the population;

Average monthly earnings of full-time employees;

Average earnings by sex.

History of the survey

The Institutional Labour Data Collection System of the CSO started in 1976. In 1992, the Hungarian Industrial Classification was revised, and based on ISIC, Rev.3, 1990.

Prior to 1992, the labour reports covered all enterprises of the socialised sector.

Between 1992 and 1997, several modifications were brought to the survey coverage, in terms of industries, establishment size, periodicity and sample size, in order to better follow the evolution of the economic and labour market. In 1997, the quarterly reports were discontinued.

For more information on the history of the survey, see Sources and Methods: Labour Statistics - Vol. 2 (second edition), 1995.

Since 1998, data are collected on the hours of work of all full-time employees (manual and non-manual workers) in all economic activities.

Documentation

Hungarian Central Statistical Office: Monthly Bulletin of Statistics (Budapest);

idem: Statistical Report (monthly, ibid.);

idem: Statistical Yearbook (annual, ibid.).

Monthly results are published some two months after the reference period; annual data are published some five months after the reference year. The data can also be made available on floppy disk, by e-mail, etc.

idem: Instruction to institutional questionnaires on labour statistics (definitions and methods) (Budapest, 1998).

CSO Web-site address: http://www.ksh.hu

See also:

CESTAT Statistical Bulletin, publication prepared jointly by the Czech Statistical Office, the Hungarian Central Statistical Office, the Central Statistical Office of Poland, the National Commission for Statistics of Romania, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia and the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic (quarterly).

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

The data that relate to any cell with less than four enterprises cannot be released for confidentiality reasons.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

The following data are published in the Yearbook of Labour Statistics:

Average paid employment (average number of employees),

Average monthly hours actually worked by manual workers in industry,

Average monthly earnings of full-time employees by sex, by economic activity and in manufacturing, by industry group;

The corresponding quarterly data are published in the relevant Tables of the Bulletin of Labour Statistics.

Other sources of data

A survey entitled Individual Wage Survey on the average earnings by occupation is conducted by the National Labour Center. It provides data on monthly wage rates and earnings by occupation. The results of this survey, with reference to the month of May of each year, are published in Statistics on occupational wages and hours of work and on food prices - October Inquiry results, a special supplement to the ILO Bulletin of Labour Statistics.