New Zealand (1)

Title of the survey

Quarterly Employment Survey (QES)

Organization responsible

Statistics New Zealand

Periodicity of the survey

Quarterly.

Objectives of the survey

To produce quarterly figures on employment, average paid hours, average hourly and weekly wages. The survey results are used by local authorities in planning and forecasting, by the Government in the application of regulations, and by research organizations as well other users in the community. They provide an input to the measurement of Gross Domestic Product and the setting of national superannuation rates.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Employment, earnings and hours of work.

Reference period

The pay week ending on or before the 20 of the middle month of each quarter (20 February for the full-coverage survey, and 20 May, 20 August and 20 November for the sample surveys).

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

The whole country.

Industrial

All branches of economic activity except agriculture, hunting and trapping, fishing, seagoing work, domestic services in private households, owning and leasing of real estate and the armed forces (although civilian staff are included).

Establishments

All types of establishments employing more than two full-time equivalent employees.

Persons

All persons engaged, i.e. all employees and working proprietors. Excluded are unpaid family workers.

Occupations

The survey does not collect data on individual occupations.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

Data are collected separately for the following categories of persons engaged, and for each category, by sex:

working proprietors (separately full-time and part-time), including those temporarily absent from work (e.g. sick or on leave), defined as either a sole proprietor or partner actively engaged in the business, or a shareholder in a limited liability company actively engaged in its management and who is classified by the establishment as a working proprietor.
full-time employees, working regularly 30 hours or more per week, including those temporarily absent from work (e.g. sick, on leave, strike or temporary lay-off), whether paid or not, as well as apprentices, trainees, workers on probation, piece workers, home workers, temporary, casual and seasonal workers, employees working for commission as well as all managerial and executive staff (e.g. chief executive);
part-time employees, working regularly less than 30 hours a week; the same inclusion and exclusion criteria apply as for full-time employees.

Earnings

Data refer to ordinary and overtime earnings, separately, paid to employees, by sex:

Ordinary earnings refer to the gross total payout to all employees minus any overtime payouts. They include all shift, penal and other allowances, as well as bonuses, paid leave and commission earned in the payweek. They exclude payments not earned in the payweek (e.g. back pay, redundancy and severance pay), non-taxable payments (e.g. tool money), as well as house rent allowance and earnings in kind (such as food and drink, fuel, clothing etc.).
Overtime earnings refer to the gross total earnings for overtime hours worked by employees.

Wage/salary rates

Not relevant.

Hours of work

Data are collected on hours paid for in the specified pay week, to employees, by sex. Hours paid for are split into:

Ordinary time hours, which are the number of hours that are represented by ordinary time payout, including paid travel time and hours paid for but not worked such as for paid holidays, sickness, etc.;
Overtime hours, which refer to the actual number of overtime hours worked by employees.

Included in hours paid for, but not separately identified, are time spent at workplace for repairs, maintenance, preparation and cleaning of tools, preparation of receipts, time sheets and reports, etc.; inactive periods of time whether spent at the workplace or outside the workplace for vacation, accident, personal leave, meal breaks, study and training periods; work stoppages because of industrial disputes etc. Excluded are unpaid inactive periods of time spent outside the workplace, for instance, for maternity and parental leave.

International recommendations

The definition of earnings complies with the international recommendations, in that it refers to gross cash payments made on a regular basis, for time worked or work done, including remuneration for time not worked and paid for, with the following exceptions: the value of payments in kind and the house rent allowance are excluded from data collection. The concept of hours of work corresponds to that of hours paid for.

Classifications

Industrial

The survey data are classified according to the New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (NZSIC-1987), which can be linked to the International Standard Classification of all economic activities (ISIC), Rev.2, 1968 at the four-digit level.

Occupational

Not relevant.

Others

The survey data are classified by sex, sector (private, central government trading, central government non-trading, local government trading, local government non-trading) and by region.

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The sampling and reporting unit is the activity unit. Formerly known as an establishment, this is a separate operating unit engaged in one (or predominantly one) kind of economic activity from a single physical location or base from which work is carried out.

Survey universe / sample frame

The sample is selected from the Business Directory, a comprehensive register of business enterprises and activity units in New Zealand. The frame is continuously updated on the basis of the Annual Business Directory Update (in February of each year), by information received from surveys such as the Quarterly Employment Survey, the Quarterly Manufacturing Survey, the Retail Trade Survey, the Wholesale Trade Survey, the Annual Enterprise Survey, and by information received from the Inland Revenue Department.

Sample design

The February survey is a full-coverage survey, which covers some 60,000 establishments (activity units), which together account for approximately 70 percent of total filled jobs in surveyed industries. The May, August and November surveys are based on a stratified random sample, which covers approximately 28,000 units. The activity units are stratified by sector, industry and employment size. The population is broken into single and multi-activity unit enterprises, and the eligible population is all activity units with more than two full-time employees or their equivalent. The sample is maintained by keeping the activity units selected in the initial samples, regardless of changes in ownership, and by taking a sample of new activity units. Respondents selected for the sample survey will remain in the sample for the entire duration until it is rebased, usually after a five-year period. Only those activity units that move in and out of scope (in terms of employment size or industrial activity) are removed or added to the sample at one stage during the year. Most Government sector data are collected directly from the Government's computerized pay systems.

Field work

Data collection

Mailed questionnaires are sent prior to the pay period. The completed forms should be returned to Statistics New Zealand within seven days after the survey reference period. Statistics New Zealand is responsible for data collection and processing.

Survey questionnaire

This contains some prefilled information, and any incorrect data should be amended by the respondents. Data are also to be provided in case of additional or new locations. The survey questionnaire comprises the following seven sets of questions, for which data are collected by sex:

number of working proprietors, separately full-time and part-time, and by sex;
number of full-time employees, by sex;
number of part-time employees, by sex; (employee data related to the previous survey are also pre-printed in the appropriate separate fields). and with regard to employees:
ordinary time payments;
overtime payments:
ordinary time hours;
overtime hours.

Explanatory notes are provided along with the questionnaire for each type of data to be reported.

Substitution of sampling units

If a unit has gone out of business, it is removed from the sample without replacement. For the units for which returns are not received in time for processing, data are estimated on the basis of the previous survey return. New business units are brought into the survey to replace deaths/closures, in order to maintain the sample accuracy.

Data processing and editing

The questionnaires are first checked manually, then data are processed by computer and are edited through machine edit. In case of missing or inconsistent data, respondents are contacted by telephone and mail. Numerous range and consistency checks are also made.

Types of estimates

Totals of employment; average weekly and hourly earnings; and average weekly hours of work. All data are collected as totals (e.g. total overtime hours worked by females) at the activity unit level. Each establishment's totals are aggregated (e.g. by sector), and averages are produced from these. In computing average ordinary time hours, part-timers are adjusted to an equivalent full-time basis by regarding two part-timers as one full-timer. Average ordinary time hours are therefore obtained by dividing the total number of ordinary time hours by the sum of all full-time employees plus half that of part-time employees. Average overtime hours are obtained by dividing the total number of overtime hours by the number of full-time employees only (i.e. it is assumed that only full-time employees work overtime). Average hourly (ordinary or overtime) earnings are obtained by dividing total (ordinary or overtime) earnings by the corresponding number of (ordinary or overtime) hours. Average weekly earnings are the quotient of total payments on the number of employees (all full-time employees plus half of part-time employees).

Construction of indices

Index numbers are not constructed.

Weighting of sample results

Estimation factors are used to generate all required estimates, which are calculated using the results of the February full-coverage survey. These weights are established for each stratum (by industry division, sector, establishment size, region and sex), and then projected from the sample design to the level of the total population.

Adjustments

Non-response

No adjustments are made for non-response. Missing data are imputed.

Other bias

No adjustments are made for any other bias.

Use of benchmark data

The February full-coverage survey provides employment data used as benchmarks in the three subsequent sample surveys.

Seasonal variations

No adjustments are made for seasonal variations.

Indicators of reliability of the estimates

Coverage of the sampling frame

Not quantified in terms of percentages. However, those businesses or organizations that are not covered by the Business Directory employ a small number of staff and contribute little to the economy. The proportion not covered would be very low.

Sampling error / sampling variance

The standard error of estimates of employment is 1.1 per cent; that of average weekly earnings, 0.5 per cent, and that of average hourly earnings is about 0.4 per cent, with a 95 per cent confidence interval. Employment data most accurately reflect the number of filled jobs in the economy, rather than the number of employed persons; and employment statistics are best used as an index of change in the number of filled jobs, rather than as a measure of the level or numerical change in filled jobs.

Non-response rate

Approximately 8 per cent of full-time equivalent employees.

Non-sampling errors

Inconsistent figures may be provided because of misinterpretion of the questionnaire by respondents, or by respondents giving data for more than one week (e.g. in the case of fortnightly or monthly payments).

Conformity with other sources

Employment figures are compared with the Household Labour Force Survey and any other survey sources available (e.g. the Quarterly Manufacturing Survey). Movements in earnings are compared with the Labour Cost Index.

Available series

Published tables include average hourly earnings and average weekly hours of work and earnings, by industry, region, sector and sex. The results of the February full-coverage survey are available at a very fine level of detail. Estimates from the three sample surveys are available only at broad levels of aggregation.

History of the survey

From 1947 to 1979, the Department of Labour conducted a half-yearly full-coverage Employment Information Survey, with reference to a pay week in April and October. The survey covered all establishments with a minimum of two full-time equivalent persons. In 1980, the Quarterly Employment Survey was introduced, with collection of data for a pay week in February, May, August and November. The February survey was a full-coverage survey, while the remaining three were based on a sample method. The definition of surveyable establishments was changed to include all units in which two or more persons (part-timers, full-timers and/or working proprietors) were engaged. The Department of Labour conducted the survey until the results of the November 1988 survey were published. A number of changes have occurred over the years, which include, among others:

ordinary time and overtime hours and earnings data became available separately in 1957;
hours and earnings data became available by sex in 1973;
the definition of working proprietors was changed in 1973 to include surveyable professional practioners (e.g. accountants, dentists) and female working proprietors in the construction industry;
before 1973, "ordinary time hours" referred to actual hours worked, while overtime hours referred to the actual number of overtime hours worked. Since 1973, ordinary time hours have been defined as the number of hours represented by the ordinary wage payments;
the division line between part-time and full-time employees was changed in February 1980: before 1980, a part-time employee was one who worked fewer than three-quarters of the scheduled ordinary time hours for that industry;
several modifications brought to the classification of the organizations constituting the Government sector, and to the methods of capturing computer payroll information for public servants and teachers;
before October 1979, average total weekly earnings were calculated using the divisor "full-timers plus part-timers", in contrast to the current divisor "full-timers plus half of part-timers".

Since February 1989, the survey became the responsibility of Statistics New Zealand. It has been conducted on a quarterly basis, collecting data referring to the payweek ending immediately on, or before the 20th of February, May, August and November, and according to the present methodology. In order to provide consistent long-term historical series, some Department of Labour data back to 1982 have been revised according to the new survey coverage. Some adjusted estimates are published for 1987 and 1988. A new classification, the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC - 1993) will be introduced when the survey is next redesigned.

Documentation

Statistics New Zealand: Key Statistics (monthly, Wellington). The results of the May and August sample surveys are available some 13 weeks after the survey reference period; November results are available 14 weeks after the survey reference period. Provisional earnings results from the February survey are available in mid-May, with final results for earnings and filled jobs published at the same time as the May results. idem: Hot Off the Press - Quarterly Employment Survey (quarterly, ibid.). idem: Labour Market Statistics (annual, ibid.). idem: Pocket Digest of Statistics (annual, ibid.). idem: Yearbook (annual, ibid.). Most results can be made available upon request. Customised jobs can be provided for every variable, depending on sample error and confidentiality of data; data can be made available on diskette. For additional information on the survey methodology, see also: Department of Labour: Quarterly Employment Survey - Supplementary Tables to the Labour and Employment Gazette, February 1986 (ibid.).

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

The data are used for statistical purposes only. Any release of information will only be in accordance with the Statistics Act 1975. Cells are deemed to be confidential if (i) three or fewer enterprises contribute towards it, or (ii) two or less enterprises contribute to 80 percent or more of its value.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

Data on average weekly hours paid for and average hourly earnings of employees, in non agricultural activities and specific industries, are published in Tables 11 to 15 and 16 to 20, respectively, of the Yearbook of Labour Statistics. The corresponding quarterly series are published in the relevant Tables of the Bulletin of Labour Statistics.