Sweden (1)

Title of the survey

Wages and Employment in mining, quarrying and manufacturing

Organization responsible

Statistiska Centralbyrån (SCB) (Statistics Sweden)

Periodicity of the survey

Monthly.

Objectives of the survey

To obtain average hourly earnings of wage-earners, which serve as a basis for the computation of the quarterly Labour Cost Index.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Employment, earnings and hours of work.

Reference period

Employment: a normal working day in the month; Earnings and hours of work: the month or at least a two-week period, blown up to the full month.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

The whole country.

Industrial

Mining and quarrying; and manufacturing.

Establishments

All types of enterprises with five or more employees in the private sector.

Persons

Wage earners only, aged 18 to 64 years.

Occupations

Not relevant.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

Data refer to wage earners. They include piece workers, casual, temporary, seasonal and part-time workers, as well as persons temporarily absent from work, provided they have worked some hours during the reference period. They exclude supervisors, foremen, store managers, engineers, apprentices, office clerks, shop assistants, cleaning staff, restaurant staff, workers in agriculture and forestry, and homeworkers. Data on the number of wage earners are collected by sex.

Earnings

Data are collected on gross earnings of wage earners. Gross earnings include pay for normal time worked, premium pay for overtime and shift work, additional pay for inconvenient hours of work (e.g. night work) and piece-work compensation, as well as bonuses and premiums regularly paid at each pay period. These components are known as direct wages. They exclude remuneration for time not worked (e.g. public holiday pay, vacation pay, sick-leave pay, layoff pay), the value of earnings in kind and irregularly paid bonuses and premiums.

Wage/salary rates

Not relevant. Basic wage rates form part of gross earnings, but they are not separately identified.

Hours of work

Data relate to hours actually worked. They include normal hours of work; overtime; time spent at place of work on preparation of workplace, repairs, maintenance, preparation and cleaning of tools, preparation of receipts, time sheets, reports; time spent at place of work waiting or standing by due to breakdown, lack of supply or bad weather; time spent at place of work during which no work is done but for which payment is made under a guaranteed employment contract; and time corresponding to short rest periods at the workplace including tea or coffee breaks. They exclude hours paid for but not worked (for holidays, vacation, sick leave, time off, etc.). Normal hours of work and overtime hours are separately identified and measured.

International recommendations

The concept of earnings used in the survey is limited to direct wages for time worked and regular bonuses and gratuities. It excludes remuneration for time not worked and the value of payments in kind. The concept of hours actually worked used in this survey is in line with that recommended by the international guidelines.

Classifications

Industrial

Data on employment, earnings and hours of work are classified at the 5-digit level of the Swedish Standard Classification of all Economic Activities (SNI). The 1992 version of the SNI (SNI-92) is based on the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities of the European Communities (NACE), Rev.1, which itself is based on the International Standard Industrial Classification of all economic activities (ISIC), Rev.3, 1990.

Occupational

Not relevant.

Others

The survey data are classified by employment size of establishments (5-9, 10-19, 20-49, 50-99, 100-199, 200-499, 500 and more). Employment data are classified by sex.

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The reporting unit is the enterprise, which may consist of one or more establishments. In this case, separate information is collected with respect to each establishment.

Survey universe / sample frame

The sample frame is derived from the Central Register of Enterprises and Establishments (CFAR) which covers all Swedish enterprises of all sizes. This register is continuously updated from administrative sources and by a special annual inquiry conducted by mailed questionnaires.

Sample design

The survey is based on a sample of approximately 2,400 enterprises with about 5,200 establishments. The sample is stratified by industry and employment size. There are altogether 20 strata. All large enterprises and establishments (500 and more employees) are included with certainty and a sample is drawn from the other strata. The overall sampling fraction is 22 percent. Rotation sampling is used, whereby one fifth of the strata rotates each year.

Field work

Data collection

By mailed questionnaire. A permanent survey organisation is responsible for data collection. In case of missing or inconsistent data, respondents are contacted by telephone.

Survey questionnaire

(Available in Swedish only in national publications).

Substitution of sampling units

There is no substitution of sampling units in case if total non-response (due to refusal, companies which have closed down or moved with an unknown address, etc.).

Data processing and editing

Data are processed both manually and by computer, and edited through machine edit.

Types of estimates

Totals are first calculated for each stratum and then aggregated to obtain totals of employment, earnings and hours actually hours worked. Average hourly earnings are obtained by dividing total earnings paid during a pay period covering at least two weeks by the number of hours actually worked during the same period. Part-time workers are taken into account as such (no conversion is done). For missing data, imputations are made from values from previous periods.

Construction of indices

Monthly series of indices of hours actually worked and employed wage earners (men and women together), are constructed on the basis of January 1994 = 100.

Weighting of sample results

The sample results are grossed up to the level of the universe by using the inverse of the sampling fraction, after adjustment for non-responses, according to the following formula: N/(n-nr) where, N = number in strata n = number in sample nr = non-response in sample

Adjustments

Non-response

In the case of non-response, the weights of the different strata are corrected according to the response rates (see above).

Other bias

Not relevant.

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

Approximately 99 per cent.

Sampling error / sampling variance

The standard error of average hourly earnings is computed each month, with a 95 per cent confidence interval.

Non-response rate

In 1994, the non-response rate was about 8.1 per cent in terms of non-responding units and 3.0 per cent in terms of weighted employment.

Non-sampling errors

Not available.

Conformity with other sources

Not available.

Available series

The following series are published monthly:

History of the survey

The survey was introduced in 1947, and since then, it has been conducted on a regular basis without any major changes. The Swedish standard industrial classification of all economic activities has been revised a number of times. The previous version (SNI-69) was linked to ISIC, Rev.2, 1968 at the four-digit level.

Documentation

Statistiska Centralbyrån (Statistics Sweden): Statistiska Meddelanden, Serie Am 20 SM (Statistical Reports) (monthly, Stockholm). The data are available some eight weeks after the survey reference month. idem: Allman månadsstatistik (Monthly digest of Swedish statistics) (monthly, ibid.). Unpublished tabulations can be made available upon request, and data can be obtained on diskette.

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

The publication and release of data are subject to confidentiality rules, whereby tables may not reveal any of the particulars of individual establishments.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

Monthly series of average number of wage earners and average hourly earnings of wage earners in manufacturing are published in the quarterly Bulletin of Labour Statistics.

Other sources of data

Statistics Sweden conducts a series of other surveys which provide statistics of hourly earnings of wage earners in mining and quarrying, manufacturing and construction (private sector), transport, wholesale and retail trade (private sector) and agriculture. These surveys are conducted once a year (during the second quarter) and usually cover all enterprises affiliated to employers' organizations, and a sample of non-affiliated enterprises. The data on earnings include all the regular components of earnings, in cash and in kind, for time worked or work done, as well as remuneration for time not worked, and exclude irregularly paid bonuses and gratuities. The survey results are published in AM57 Statistiska Meddelanden (annual). The following series, derived from these surveys, are published in the ILO Yearbook of Labour Statistics: