South Africa (1)
Title of the survey
Labour Statistics: Monthly Survey of Employment, Salaries and Wages -
Mining and Quarrying, Manufacturing, Construction and Electricity
Organization responsible
Central Statistical Service (CSS)
Periodicity of the survey
Monthly.
Objectives of the survey
The survey results are used for manpower planning and social and
demographic analyses. They constitute an input for the monitoring of
the Reconstruction and Development Programme.
Main labour topics covered by the survey
Employment, earnings, hours of work and compensation of employees. Data
are also collected on labour turnover (discharges, resignations and new
appointments) and staff shortage.
Reference period
Employment: for monthly paid workers, the last day of the month; for
weekly paid workers, the last day of the last full pay week of the
month.
Earnings and hours of work: for monthly paid workers, the month; for
weekly paid workers, the last full pay week of the month.
The last full pay week of the month (with regard to weekly paid workers)
is the pay week nearest to the end of the month in which there are no
holidays; it is not necessarily the last pay week of the month.
Coverage of the survey
Geographical
The whole country, except Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei
(TBVC States) (included as from January 1995).
Industrial
Mining and quarrying, manufacturing, construction and electricity.
Establishments
All types and sizes of establishments in the formal sector.
Manufacturing includes private businesses, public corporations and
Government undertakings. Construction covers general contractors and
special trade contractors in the private sector.
Electricity covers private establishments, public corporations and
public authorities which have as their main activity the generation
and/or distribution of electricity, gas and water.
Persons
All employees (production workers and managerial, administrative and
related workers).
Working proprietors, partners, unpaid family assistants and
non-executive directors are excluded.
Occupations
Not relevant.
Concepts and definitions
Employment
Employees are all paid workers present on the payroll on the
reference day. Included are workers on holiday or sick leave, or absent
as a result of short military service in the Citizen Force or Commando.
Workers undergoing one year military service are excluded.
The two following categories of employees are identified separately:
- executive, administrative, clerical, professional and technical
workers: managing and working directors who receive a fixed salary,
managers, secretaries and accountants, administrative and clerical
staff, travellers, despatch and other workers engaged in sales, as well
as workers at factory distribution depots; and professional and other
technical workers, including engineers, laboratory technicians,
messengers and others;
- production and related workers: foremen, artisans, operators,
labourers and all other workers engaged in manufacturing, processing,
packing, erection, assembling, repair and other production work; and
workers engaged in work closely associated with production work such as
transport, storage, construction and maintenance work.
For production and related workers, a further distinction is made by
type of payment, between weekly paid workers and monthly paid workers.
Earnings
Data are collected on total gross wages and salaries paid for
the month or week, by category of employee and type of payment. They
include ordinary, incentive and overtime earnings, area allowances and
remuneration paid to workers out of income, capital and other accounts
and funds; remuneration of managing and working directors; and fringe
benefits paid in cash, such as housing, mortgage and rent subsidies and
transport allowances. They also include employers' contribution to
pension, provident, holiday, medical aid, sick pay and other funds (e.g.
the Unemployment Insurance Fund and the Workmen's Compensation Fund);
and employers' contributions in accordance with any other law applicable
to workers.
Excluded from wages and salaries are travel and subsistence allowances;
service bonuses (e.g. long-service or retirement bonuses); leave
gratuities; concessions; remuneration paid to workers undergoing one
year military service; allowances paid to private persons who are
members of councils, committees and commissions; drawings of working
proprietors and partners and non-working directors' fees; and payments
in kind, such as free meals, lodging, low interest loans and the use of
company cars.
For weekly and monthly paid production workers, data on overtime wages
(included in total gross wages) are collected separately.
In addition to total gross wages and salaries, data are collected on
bonuses paid during the month, by employee category and type
of payment. These include leave, Christmas and other bonuses;
thirteenth month payment; cost-of-living allowances; commissions;
incentive bonuses; tool and other similar allowances; and employers'
contributions to holiday funds.
Wage/salary rates
Not relevant.
Hours of work
Data are collected on total actual hours worked during the
reference period by production workers only, separately for weekly paid
and monthly paid workers.
Actual hours worked correspond to the sum of normal hours (as fixed by
law or the establishment's internal regulations) and overtime hours, on
which data are collected separately. They include all inactive periods
of time spent at the workplace (short rest periods, stand by, study or
training periods, etc.) and outside the workplace (for vacation,
holidays, sickness or accident, leave, etc.), provided they are paid
for. In reality, they correspond to the concept of hours paid
for.
Excluded are periods of time spent on work stoppage because of
industrial disputes and layoff or short time working.
Data are also collected on the number of days actually worked by the
establishment during two reference periods: the last full pay week
of the month, and the calendar month in which the pay week falls.
Within each category of employees (executive, administrative, etc. and
production workers), data on employment, total wages and salaries, hours
of work and bonuses are collected for each population group
(Asians, Coloureds, Whites and Blacks, and an unspecified
category since March 1993), and separately for weekly paid and monthly
paid production workers.
International recommendations
The definition of gross wages and salaries used in the survey differs
from that of earnings contained in the international recommendations in
two main areas: payments in kind are excluded from wages and salaries,
and employers' contributions to pension, health and assimilated funds
are included.
It falls short of the definition of compensation of employees contained
in the System of National Accounts (SNA), 1968, in that it does not
cover all the components of this measure, such as wage payments in kind,
free housing and welfare services. Nor does it refer to a long
accounting period.
The definition of actual hours worked corresponds to that of hours paid
for, in that it covers all paid periods of time, whether worked or not
worked, during normal hours of work and overtime hours.
Classifications
Industrial
The Standard Industrial Classification of all economic activities (SIC)
fifth edition, January 1993 is used. It is linked to the International
Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC),
Rev.3, 1990 at the level of the 229 classes.
Prior to January 1993, the SIC, fourth edition, October 1988 was used,
which was convertible to ISIC, Rev. 2, 1968.
Occupational
Not relevant.
Others
The survey data are also classified by employee category and population
group.
Sample size and design
Statistical unit
The sampling and reporting unit is the establishment, except
in construction, where it is the firm.
Survey universe / sample frame
For manufacturing and construction, the universe consists of the 1988
Censuses of Manufacturing and of Construction, in which 28,361 and
16,567 establishments were enumerated respectively.
New large establishments are added on a continuous basis, and classified
as stratum 1. Strata 2 and 3 include smaller establishments and firms,
and are updated annually on the basis of the results of the present
survey.
For mining and quarrying, the universe is the business directory
maintained by the Minerals Bureau, Department of Mineral and Energy
Affairs.
For electricity, the universe is the directory kept by the CSS.
Sample design
For mining and quarrying, the survey is a complete enumeration of
establishments.
For electricity, a 98 per cent cut-off sample is used.
For manufacturing and construction, the survey uses a stratified
systematic sampling design. Stratification is based on employment
size within each SIC five-digit sub-group.
The sample consists of about 2,500 establishments in manufacturing and
1,300 establishments in construction; the sampling fraction is nine per
cent and eight per cent, respectively. On average, the current survey
covers about ten per cent of all establishments in the major divisions
of economic activity concerned, and between 40 and 50 per cent of all
employees.
The sample is renewed when the results of a new industrial census become
available, every three years. The samples are maintained on a
continuous basis.
Field work
Data collection
The survey is conducted by post and respondents are required to return
the completed questionnaires by the 7th of the following month. Data
collection is under the responsibility of the head office of the CSS in
Pretoria, assisted by nine branch offices. Follow-up and editing is
carried out by permanent staff of the CSS.
Survey questionnaire
This comprises an English version and an Afrikaans
version and consists of four parts:
- Part A covers employment, gross salaries and labour turnover of
executive, administrative and related workers;
- Part B covers employment, gross wages, hours of work and labour
turnover of production and related workers;
- Part C covers staff shortages, by employee category;
- Part D covers working days of the establishment.
The questionnaire also contains explanatory notes and definitions,
elements to be included or excluded, and notes on the submission of
returns and the confidentiality of data.
Substitution of sampling units
In the
case of total non-response, substitute units are selected on the same
basis as for the original sample.
Data processing and editing
The data are processed by computer. Printed field numbers on the
questionnaire identify the different variables. The current month's
returns are first compared with the previous month's returns and then
machine edited. Cross checks and consistency checks are built into each
edit programme and, in the case of inconsistent data, the establishment
is contacted by telephone or fax.
Types of estimates
Totals and averages.
Employment and earnings: per month.
Hours of work: per week.
Construction of indices
Index numbers are not constructed.
Weighting of sample results
The survey results are weighted by the ratio valuation based on the
sample parameters, by stratum and sub-group, after taking into account
non-response, births, sample casualties and reclassifications.
Adjustments
Non-response
Non-response is taken into account in the weighting procedure.
Other bias
No adjustments are made for any other bias.
Use of benchmark data
Industrial Censuses are used as benchmark employment data to adjust
the survey results.
Seasonal variations
The earnings data are seasonally adjusted using the X-11 procedure.
They are published separately.
Indicators of reliability of the estimates
Coverage of the sampling frame
Every effort is made to cover all establishments within the scope of the
survey.
Sampling error / sampling variance
Attempts are made to keep the sampling error of each sub-group below
six per cent.
Non-response rate
The standard non-response rate ranges between five and ten per cent.
Non-sampling errors
Every effort is made to reduce non-sampling errors to a minimum by
the careful design of questionnaires and instructions and efficient
processing procedures.
Conformity with other sources
The survey results are compared with data from the population
census, for each major group of industry.
Available series
The published tables include:
- total monthly employment and wages and salaries by major division of
economic activity and population group;
- average monthly wages and salaries by major division of economic
activity and population group, at current prices, at constant 1990
prices and seasonally adjusted;
- total monthly employment and wages and salaries by sub-group of
manufacturing and construction; and
- average monthly earnings by sub-group of manufacturing and
construction, at current prices and at constant 1990 prices.
History of the survey
The survey was introduced in the 1950s and since then has been conducted
on a regular basis. It first covered the private sector only. In 1976,
a number of Government undertakings were included in the manufacturing
sector covered by the survey.
In 1987, a distinction was made between weekly paid and monthly paid
production workers.
Calculation of seasonally adjusted earnings data started in 1992.
In January 1993, the SIC, fifth edition, January 1993, was introduced
for classification by economic activity.
In January 1995, the survey was extended to include the former TBVC
States.
Documentation
Central Statistical Service: South African Statistics
(annual, Pretoria).
idem: South African Labour Statistics (annual, ibid.).
idem: Statistical Release P0242.1 (monthly, ibid.); published
about three months after the month for which data are available.
All publications contain methodological notes.
Published data can also be made available on diskette and magnetic
tape, on request.
Confidentiality / Reliability criteria
A minimum of four respondents per sub-group where no one respondent may
exceed 80 per cent of the employment for the sub-group.
Other information
Data supplied to the ILO for publication
The following data are published in the
Yearbook of Labour Statistics:
- average paid employment by branch of economic activity (Table 3B)
and in non-agricultural activities, manufacturing, mining and quarrying
and construction (Tables 4 to 7);
- average hours paid for, for production workers
in manufacturing (Table 12A) and construction
(Table 14);
- average monthly earnings (including employers' contributions) of
employees in manufacturing, mining and quarrying, and construction
(Tables 17A to 19).
The following series are published in the Bulletin of Labour
Statistics:
- quarterly series of paid employment in non-agricultural activities;
- monthly series of paid employment in manufacturing;
- monthly series of average hours paid for, for production workers
in manufacturing.
Other sources of data
Data on employment and average earnings in transport, storage and
communication are derived from the following sources:
- Transnet Ltd.;
- periodic censuses and a monthly sample survey of firms in private
road transport; and
- Telkom Ltd., the Postal Services and the South African
Broadcasting Corporation.
Data on average employment and monthly earnings of employees in
transport, storage and communication are published in Tables 8 and 20
respectively of the Yearbook of Labour Statistics.