Jamaica
Title of the survey
Quarterly Survey of Employment, Earnings and Hours Worked
Organization responsible
Statistical Institute of Jamaica
Periodicity of the survey
Quarterly.
Objectives of the survey
To obtain labour statistics from establishments in the modern
sector.
Main labour topics covered by the survey
Employment, earnings and hours of work.
Reference period
The last complete pay week of the third month of each quarter.
Coverage of the survey
Geographical
The whole country.
Industrial
All branches of economic activity, except agriculture, the Government,
free-zone establishments and private educational services.
Establishments
Establishments with ten or more persons employed.
Persons
Employees.
Excluded are working owners or partners of unincorporated businesses,
former employees on pension, self-employed persons and persons
hired on a fee-for-service basis.
Occupations
The survey does not collect data on individual occupations.
Concepts and definitions
Employment
Employees include all persons, employed on a full-time or
part-time basis, who are drawing pay for work done or services rendered.
Persons who were absent from work on paid leave (e.g. sick leave,
vacation leave) during the specified week are included. Data are
collected by employee category, as follows:
- Salaried employees: include managing and working
directors, executives, administrative and professional employees,
supervisors and foremen, commission agents and travelling salesmen
directly responsible to management, clerical and other related workers
in the office and plant.
- Wage earners: employees other than supervisors and
foremen, who are engaged in the production process and in construction,
installation and maintenance operations; warehouse and delivery staff;
security staff and office maids.
Within each category, data are collected on the number of employees by
type of payment, as follows:
- salaried employees:
- paid monthly
- paid fortnightly
- paid weekly
- paid other than above,
- wage earners
- hourly rated (full-time)
- hourly rated (part-time and casual)
- paid other than above (task or piece-rate).
Earnings
Data are collected on aggregate gross earnings paid to each
employee category, by type of payment (see above), during the reference
period.
Gross earnings refer to wages and salaries before any deductions
are made by the establishment for income tax, National Insurance,
National Housing Trust, contributions to Health and Pension Schemes.
Overtime, incentive pay, commissions and that part of retroactive pay
which relates to the pay period, are included in gross earnings.
Excluded are bonuses, special payments and severance pay.
Wage/salary rates
Not available.
Hours of work
Data are collected on aggregate hours paid for for
wage earners only, by type of payment, during the reference
period.
Hours paid for include normal periods
of time, paid overtime and normal working hours spent on paid vacation,
sick leave, holiday and other forms of leave with pay.
They exclude periods of absence without pay for unpaid leave,
lay-off, suspension, industrial disputes, trade union activities,
etc.
The survey also collects information on the number of days worked in the
establishment during the reference week, and on the number of normal
working hours of wage earners and salaried employees, separately.
International recommendations
The definition of gross earnings complies with the international
recommendations on the compilation of current statistics of earnings,
with the following major exception: the value of payments in kind (such
as food and drink, fuel and clothing) is excluded.
The data on hours of work correspond to hours paid for.
Classifications
Industrial
Data on employment, earnings and hours of work are classified at the
three-digit level of the International Standard Industrial
Classification of all economic activities (ISIC), Rev.2, 1968.
A few industrial categories such as cement, railways and electricity,
have their details presented separately because of the high relevance
of such activity to the Jamaican economy.
Occupational
Not relevant.
Others
None.
Sample size and design
Statistical unit
The establishment.
Survey universe / sample frame
Not available.
Sample design
Since the second quarter of 1989,
the survey is based on a complete enumeration of all establishments
employing 50 or more persons, and on a 20 per cent sample of
establishments employing ten to 49 persons.
The selection was done with circular systematic sampling with a random
start. Some marginal adjustments were made in the case
of a few industrial categories where the total number of establishments
is small, to ensure that the estimates are based on adequate samples in
respect of these industries.
The quarterly survey covers some 1,000 establishments, out of a
total of 2,174 establishments employing ten or more persons.
Field work
Data collection
Questionnaires are sent and returned by mail each quarter.
Survey questionnaire
This consists of a single-page table designed to collect data on: main
activity of the establishment; number of days worked and
normal working hours; and for each category of employees and by type
of payment, data on the number of employees, their aggregate earnings
and aggregate hours paid for.
Instructions on definitions, inclusions and exclusions, form part
of the questionnaire.
Substitution of sampling units
There is no substitution of sampling units in case of total
non-response.
Data processing and editing
Not available.
Types of estimates
Employment: total and by category; average earnings, average
wage rates and average hours paid for.
Aggregates of total employment, total earnings and total hours of work
are estimated by using the link relative technique. From the
establishments reporting for both the previous and current quarters, the
ratio of current quarter employment to that of the previous quarter is
computed. The estimates of total employment for the current quarter are
obtained by multiplying the estimates for the previous quarter by these
link relatives. The link relative method is applied for the
establishments under each industry and size group.
The estimates of other aggregates such as total earnings, total hours
of work, etc. are obtained by raising the corresponding estimates of
reporting establishments by the ratio of the estimate of total
employment to that in the reporting establishments.
Construction of indices
Index numbers of employment, earnings, and hours of work are compiled
with the base being the average of the four quarters of 1986=100.
Weighting of sample results
The survey results are not weighted. They reflect the situation in
the surveyed establishments.
Adjustments
Non-response
Imputations are made on the basis of previous returns.
Other bias
None.
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 computed.
Non-response rate
The response rate averages 70 percent.
Non-sampling errors
The estimates of average earnings, average wage rates, etc. are fairly
precise at the one and two-digit levels of the industrial
classification, but the corresponding estimates at the three-digit
level may
not be so precise for some of the industries where the number of
reporting establishments is small.
As regards the breakdown of employees into wage earners and salaried
employees, although the definition specifies that all the employees
engaged in the production process, other than supervisory, should be
classified as wage earners, some of the establishments may continue to
classify them as salaried employees since they are paid on a salary
basis.
Another limitation is that the average earnings and average wage rates
depend on the composition of the employees with different levels of
emoluments and on overtime payments which differ from time to time.
These influence the estimates, especially at the detailed industry
level.
The overall estimates should be considered as showing the broad trends
in the earnings, wages and hours worked in large establishments.
Conformity with other sources
Not relevant.
Available series
The following tables are regularly prepared:
- total employment, number of wage earners and salaried employees, and
number of hourly-rated wage earners;
- average earnings per week of all employees and of wage earners, and
average straight-time wages per week of hourly-rated wage earners,
- average straight-time hours worked per week of hourly-rated wage
earners, and basic hourly wage rates of hourly-rated wage earners.
History of the survey
The Survey of Employment, Earnings and Hours started in 1983 and was
conducted without any major changes up to now.
Documentation
Statistical Institute of Jamaica: Quarterly Abstract of
Statistics (Kingston).
idem: Statistical Abstract (annual, ibid.).
Confidentiality / Reliability criteria
The confidentiality of data is ensured under the Statistics Act, Chapter
368. When, at the four- and five-digit levels of the industrial
classification, the response rate is lower than three establishments in
a given industrial category, data are presented at the three-digit
level of
the classification.
Other information
Data supplied to the ILO for publication
The following data are published in the Yearbook of Labour
Statistics:
- Average hours paid for (wage earners) in Tables 12A to 15;
- Average weekly earnings of employees in specific industries, in
Tables 17A to 20.