Moldova, Rep. of
Title of the survey
Monthly and Annual survey on Employment, Remuneration and Hours
of Work.
Organization responsible
Department for Statistical and Sociological Research of Moldova.
Periodicity of the survey
Monthly and annual.
Objectives of the survey
To provide macro-economic indicators on the number of employees,
their remuneration, hours of work and labour cost. The results
are used in socio-economic analysis.
Main labour topics covered by the survey
Employment, earnings, hours of work and other conditions of work.
Labour cost is covered annually since 1996.
Reference period
In the monthly survey: the month;
In the annual survey: the whole year.
Coverage of the survey
Geographical
The whole country, except the left side of the Dniestr (Nistru)
and the city of Bendery (Bender).
Industrial
All branches of economic activity except households with employed
persons.
Establishments
Enterprises and establishments with 20 or more employees and all
organisations and institutions.
Persons
Employees.
Occupations
The surveys do not collect data by individual occupation.
Concepts and definitions
Employment
A distinction is made between two categories of employees:
Employees registered on the enterprise's list, who are persons
employed on the basis of an employment contract, whether full or
part-time, who are on the payroll of the enterprise, irrespective
of the duration of their contract. They include persons
temporarily absent from work because of paid vacation or holiday,
sickness or accident or any other reason, provided their
remuneration is paid out of the wage fund.
Other categories of employees include workers sub-contracted
from other enterprises (multiple-job holders whose main activity
is with another enterprise, called sovmestitiels),
collaborators with an enterprise contract, persons on unpaid
leave, on short-time working, on normal and extended maternity
and parental leave, and in general, persons absent from work who
receive allowances or indemnities paid out of social funds
(e.g. for sickness or accident).
Data are collected on the average number of employees (the total
number of employees, out of which the number of employees on the
enterprise's list) during the reference period (i.e. the full
year in the annual survey and the month in the monthly survey) by
economic activity of the enterprise or organisation.
Data on the number of employees by sex are collected with
reference to the 31st of December of each year.
Earnings
Data are collected on total gross earnings due to be paid to all
employees and to employees on the enterprise's list during the
reference period. Gross earnings include:
- all direct wages and salaries for time worked and work done,
including basic wages and salaries, premium pay for overtime,
shift and night work, work in difficult conditions, incentive
pay, production and productivity bonuses, cost- of-living,
transport, housing and communal services allowances, family
allowances and similar allowances, and other regularly paid
bonuses and allowances;
- payments for time not worked, i.e. for vacation, annual leave,
official days off, time off with pay, etc.;
- irregular bonuses, premiums and gratuities, such as seasonal,
year-end and similar bonuses and profit-sharing bonuses;
- the value of payments in kind (free or subsidised food and
drink, housing, fuel, gas, transport, goods and services produced
as outputs from the employer's own process of production, etc.),
provided all these forms of wages and salaries in cash and in
kind are paid out of the wage fund.
Excluded are all payments made out of the social security and
other social funds.
Data are also collected on the total amount of wage arrears, and
on the value of the production sold out or given by employers to
their employees in lieu of cash wages and salaries (the latter is
not considered as earnings).
For the purposes of earnings statistics, average earnings are
calculated by dividing the total amount of earnings due to be
paid by the number of employees on the enterprise's list.
Wage / salary rates
Not relevant.
Hours of work
In the annual survey, data are collected on the total number of
hours actually worked by employees on the enterprise's list.
Labour cost
In the annual survey, data are collected on total
labour cost, i.e. the sum of total gross earnings (as defined
above) and non-wage expenditure incurred by employers during the
reference year for the utilisation of labour. Labour cost
includes:
- direct wages and salaries
- payments for time not worked
- bonuses and premiums in cash
- remuneration in kind (food, drink and other payments in kind)
- assistance for employees' housing supported by the employer
- employer's contributions to the social security fund and
direct social payments to employees
- employer's expenditure for professional training
- employer's expenditure for welfare, social and cultural
services
- other labour costs
- taxes on employment which are considered as labour cost.
International recommendations
The definitions of total gross earnings, hours actually worked
and labour cost conform to the international recommendations.
Classifications
According to the 10 major groups of
components of the International Standard Classification of Labour
Cost (ISCLC-1966).
Industrial
Since 1997 (with reference to 1996), data are classified
according to the International Standard Industrial Classification
of all economic activities (ISIC), Rev.3.
Occupational
Not relevant.
Others
Data are classified by type of ownership and sector.
Sample size and design
Statistical unit
The reporting unit is the enterprise or organisation, i.e. a
legal entity or a kind of economic activity unit.
Survey universe / sample frame
The sampling frame is the Business Register which covers
industrial and commercial enterprises and establishments with 20
or more employees and all administrations and organisations.
Sample design
The surveys are conducted by complete enumeration.
Field work
Data collection
It is carried out by means of mailed questionnaires. The monthly
questionnaire must be returned by the 10th of the month following
the reference month; the annual questionnaire must be returned by
the end of January following the reference year.
Survey questionnaire
The annual questionnaire on employment, earnings and other
conditions of work collects the following data for the whole year:
- identification of the enterprise
- average number of employees during the year (excluding
multiple-job holders)
- average number of employees taken as a basis to calculate
average earnings (after deduction of persons absent from work for
unpaid leave, long-term leave, persons whose allowances and
indemnities are paid out of social funds, etc.)
- total gross earnings due to these employees
- total number of hours actually worked by these employees.
Section II collects detailed data on the various components of
labour cost (see under Concepts and Definitions). Information
is also provided, next to these components, to identify the
elements of compensation of employees used in the national
accounts.
Section III collects detailed data on the number of employees on
31 December of the year, and separately, the number of working
pensioners, young workers, women workers and women on extended
maternity leave.
Section IV collects data on the amount of dividend and interest
paid to employees.
A number of modules are attached to the annual questionnaire,
covering:
- the remuneration paid to and social security contributions
paid on behalf of medical staff and staff of educational
institutions;
- occupational injuries and social protection;
- educational levels and professional training of employees by
category (manual and non-manual workers) and enterprises'
expenditure for educational and professional training; and
- the distribution of employees in administrations by sex.
The monthly questionnaire is a simplified form which collects
data on the total number of employees and the total amount of
wages and salaries in cash and in kind due to all employees, and
separately to multiple-job holders and other employee categories
not on the enterprise's list; the amount of arrears in wages and
salaries for the current month and the cumulated amount since the
beginning of the year; the number of employees used as a basis
for the calculation of average earnings; and the total value of
production sold out or given to employees in lieu of cash
earnings.
Qualitative data are also collected on the reasons for variations
by comparison with the previous month (organisational changes,
payment of bonuses and premiums, interruption of activity for
economic reasons, strike, financial difficulties, reporting
error, wage negotiation, indexation, etc.).
Detailed instructions on definitions, inclusions, exclusions,
etc. are provided along with all questionnaires and modules.
Substitution of sampling units
In case of total non-response, reporting units are not replaced.
Data processing and editing
Data are processed and edited by computer. In case of missing or
inconsistent data, contacts are made by telephone.
Types of estimates
Monthly and annual totals, averages and percentage changes.
Construction of indices
Monthly indices of real earnings are computed by economic
activity.
Weighting of sample results
Not relevant.
Adjustments
Non-response
Not available.
Other bias
Not available.
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
It is limited to enterprises with 20 and more employees.
Sampling error / sampling variance
Not relevant.
Non-response rate
Not available.
Non-sampling errors
Not available.
Conformity with other sources
Not relevant.
Available series
Monthly and annual number of employees; number of workers not on
payroll; average gross nominal and real monthly earnings and
percentage changes by comparison with the same period of the
previous year, by economic activity.
History of the survey
Over the recent years, a number of modifications have been made
to the survey forms, in order to align the concepts and
definitions used on the international guidelines. In 1997, the
annual questionnaire was revised to cover all elements of labour
cost. The first Labour Cost survey was conducted in 1997 with
reference to 1996, in selected manufacturing industries.
Documentation
See Moldovan Economic Trends. This is a publication prepared
jointly by the European Expertise Service (Brussels, Belgium) and
the Ministry of Economy and Reform of the Republic of Moldova,
and funded by the European Commission under the TACIS project.
Monthly issues are published in English and Romanian, and
quarterly issues are published in English, Romanian and Russian.
See also the Web-sites:
http://www.moldova.md/
http://www.un.md/Tacis/met.htm
Confidentiality / Reliability criteria
Not available.
Other information
Data supplied to the ILO for publication
The following statistical series are
published in the
Yearbook of Labour Statistics:
The corresponding monthly series of average
monthly earnings are
published in the relevant tables of the
Bulletin of Labour Statistics.
Other sources of data
A Quarterly survey on labour turnover collects data on the number
of employees during the quarter, the number of new entrants and
those leaving, employees on unpaid leave and those on short-time
working schemes, the number of vacant posts, and the number of
collaborators (multiple-job holders and persons working under an
enterprise contract).
An Annual survey on the distribution of employees by levels of
earnings (in September of each year) collects data on the number
of employees (by category) by earnings ranges established by
comparison with the minimum wage (from one to three times the
minimum wage, from three to five times, etc. up to 30 times the
minimum wage and over).
An Annual survey of occupational wages and hours of work was
introduced in 1994. It covered health and education services.
Since then, its coverage has been gradually extended to cover a
number of manufacturing industries, railway transport, banks and
insurance, forestry, administrations, etc. Selected occupations
cover those listed in the ILO October Inquiry and additional
occupations considered as important in the Moldavian economy,
within 34 economic activities. Data are collected on average
cash wage rates (basic wages) and normal/contractual hours of
work, average cash earnings and hours actually worked of
employees having worked full-time during the whole month of
October, by sex. Occupations are classified according to the
Classifier of Occupations of the Republic of Moldova, elaborated
by the Ministry of Labour, Social Protection and Family, which is
based on the International Standard Classification of Occupations
(ISCO-88).
The results of this survey 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.