Korea, Republic of (1)

Title of the survey

Monthly Labour Survey

Organization responsible

Ministry of Labour, Statistics Division

Periodicity of the survey

Monthly.

Objectives of the survey

To collect monthly information on regular employment, labour turnover, wages and hours of work for the country as a whole. The survey results are used for the formulation of labour policy.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Regular employment, earnings and hours of work, as well as days worked and labour turnover.

Reference period

The last pay period of each month.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

The whole country.

Industrial

All branches of economic activity, except agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing; national and local administration authorities, armed forces and police authorities; and national and public educational authorities.

Establishments

Establishments with usually ten or more regular employees.

Persons

Regular employees. Working proprietors, commission agents, home workers, unpaid family workers and casual employees (i.e. workers employed on a daily basis or under a contract for less than a month) are excluded.

Occupations

Data are not collected by occupation.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

Regular employees comprise the following categories:

employees working under a contract for an indefinite period of time, or under a contract for a period longer than one month,
persons employed on a daily basis or under a contract for a period of less than one month, who have worked for 45 days and more in the previous three calendar months,
directors and assimilated persons, who attend regularly and receive monthly payments,
family members who work regularly with a self-employed person and receive regular monthly payments.

In manufacturing, regular employees are classified by status, as follows:

Production workers: workers engaged in production, in recording the production process or in work closely related to production work, excluding foremen and other supervisory employees;
Salaried employees: workers engaged in management, accounting, personnel and administration, welfare, research and study, etc. Company executives who perform clerical work and receive a salary under the general wage regulations are also included.

Earnings

They are defined as total gross cash earnings, prior to employee's income tax, social insurance contributions, union dues, payments for purchased commodities, etc. Total gross cash earnings comprise:

regular payments, i.e. earnings paid on the basis of methods and conditions previously determined by labour contracts, collective agreements or establishment's wage regulations,
overtime payments, i.e. allowances paid for overtime work on working days, holiday work, night work or day watch,
family allowances, house-rent allowances and payments in kind for food, drink and fuel,
special cash payments: these may be payments made to employees during the survey period for extraordinary or emergency cases, without prior agreement, contract or rule; and payments the terms and amounts of which are fixed by collective agreement, such as retroactive payment of wages as a result of retroactive agreements; payments such as summer and year-end bonuses which are paid for each period longer than three months; profit-sharing bonuses; and allowances paid for unforeseen events, such as marriage allowances.

Total cash earnings are collected for regular employees, by sex and status.

Wage/salary rates

Not relevant.

Hours of work

Data are collected on hours actually worked by regular employees during the survey period. They include:

regular hours worked, i.e. the number of hours actually worked by employees between starting and ending hours of employment, as determined by the establishment's regulations; Included in regular hours worked, but not separately identified, are: time spent at the workplace, during which no work is done but for which payment is made under a guaranteed employment contract; and periods of time during which workers are waiting or standing by at the workplace.
overtime hours worked, when working overtime on working days, for holiday work, night work or day watch.

Excluded from hours actually worked are: time corresponding to short rest periods, whether paid or unpaid; study or training periods; time spent in trade unions or employers' organizations activities, etc. and all inactive periods of time spent outside the workplace (for leave, vacation, etc.). Data on hours of work are collected for regular employees, by sex and status. Data are also collected on the number of days worked. This refers to the number of days during the survey period on which employees actually attended the establishment. Days paid for but not worked are excluded. But if an employee works for at least one hour between zero a.m. and twelve p.m., the day is counted as one day worked. Data on days actually worked are collected for regular employees, by sex and status.

International recommendations

The definition of earnings used in this survey is in line with the international guidelines on gross earnings collected in current surveys. The definition of total hours worked used in this survey corresponds to the concept of hours actually worked; it is even slightly more restrictive, in that it excludes short paid rest periods at the workplace.

Classifications

Industrial

The survey data are distributed according to the Korea Standard Industry Classification (KSIC-1991), which is convertible to the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC), Rev.3, 1990.

Occupational

Not relevant.

Others

The survey data are classified by region, size of establishments, sex and status (production/non-production workers).

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The sampling and reporting unit is the establishment

Survey universe / sample frame

This consists of the Census of Industrial Establishments which is conducted each year by the Ministry of Labour.

Sample design

The sample design follows a stratified approach. Stratification is by size class, industry group and region. There are five size classes (10-29; 30-99; 100-299; 300-499 and 500 and more regular employees); industry is classified at the four-digit level; and there are 45 regions. The sample comprises some 3,350 establishments with ten or more regular employees, i.e. about 8 per cent of the total number of establishments with ten or more employees, and 33 per cent in terms of regular employees. The sample is renewed each year, on the basis of a new Census.

Field work

Data collection

The survey is conducted by mailed questionnaires and personal interviews by enumerators who are permanent staff of the 45 regional offices of the Ministry of Labour.

Survey questionnaire

This comprises six tables:

Tables I to III cover the name and location of the establishment, pay period, kind of activity, wage increase rate, shift system, etc.,
Table IV collects data on the total number of regular employees, total workdays, total work hours, total regular and overtime payments, total special payments, etc.,
Table V covers similar data for the previous month,
Table VI contains instructions and space to make special comments and notes on the comparison between the current and previous months.

Substitution of sampling units

In the case of total non-response, units are replaced by similar units in the same industry group, size class and region.

Data processing and editing

Data are processed by computer. Coding is carried out manually and verified with the aid of a computer programme. Data are edited through field work and machine edit programmes. In case of missing or inconsistent data, contacts are made by telephone and enumerator's visit. If the reference period used for data collection presents abnormal circumstances (e.g. strikes, public holidays, fire, flood, etc.), the data are not processed.

Types of estimates

Totals and averages of regular employment, cash earnings and hours actually worked, per month.

Construction of indices

Index series of regular employment, earnings and hours of work are constructed.

Weighting of sample results

Regular employment estimates are computed using the ratio estimation method, as follows:

where,

E_i=: employment estimates for the current month, for the stratum or sub-stratum i, by class size, industry group and region;
e_i=: survey results for the current month;
E_i-1=: employment estimates for the previous month;
e_i-1=: survey results of the previous month.

Adjustments

Non-response

No adjustments are made for non-response.

Other bias

No adjustments are made for any other bias.

Use of benchmark data

Employment data are revised each year, on the basis of the Census of Industrial Establishments.

Seasonal variations

No adjustments are made for seasonal variations.

Indicators of reliability of the estimates

Coverage of the sampling frame

This is assumed to be complete at the time the Census results are available.

Sampling error / sampling variance

The relative sampling error, with regard to regular payments is two per cent for all five size classes.

Non-response rate

Not available.

Non-sampling errors

Not available.

Conformity with other sources

Not relevant.

Available series

Tables are published each month, on average monthly number of regular employees, labour turnover, days worked, hours worked and cash earnings by industry (at the one- and two-digit level), size of establishment, status and sex.

History of the survey

The Monthly Labour Survey was introduced in 1968. Since then, it has been conducted on a regular basis, although some modifications have been brought to the sample design and the industrial classification. Prior to 1993, data were classified according to a previous version of the Korea Standard Industry Classification (KSIC), which was convertible to ISIC-68, with some local adaptations at the four-digit level.

Documentation

Ministry of Labour: Report on Monthly Labour Survey (monthly, Seoul). idem: Year Book of Labour (annual, ibid.). National Statistical Office: Monthly Statistics of Korea (monthly, ibid). idem: Korea Statistical Yearbook (annual, ibid.). The Bank of Korea: Monthly Statistical Bulletin (monthly, ibid.).

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

The publication and release of data are subject to confidentiality rules.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

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

average hours actually worked and average monthly earnings of regular employees, in non-agricultural activities and specific industries, in Tables 11 to 15, and 16 to 20.

The corresponding monthly series in non-agricultural activities and manufacturing are published in the Bulletin of Labour Statistics.