Hong Kong, China (1)
Source of the series
Government Administrative Records.
Title of the series
Civil Service Personnel Statistics - Establishment and Strength of the Civil Service.
Organization responsible
Data collection:
Civil Service Bureau, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), People’s Republic of China.
Statistical processing and publication/dissemination of the statistics:
Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong SAR.
Main topics covered
Employment and vacancies.
Periodicity or frequency of availability of the statistics
Quarterly.
Reference period
The last full working day in a quarter.
Coverage of the statistics
Geographical:
Hong Kong SAR.
Industrial:
all divisions of economic activity.
Establishments:
all policy bureaux and government departments in the Government of Hong Kong SAR.
Persons:
civil servants.
Occupations:
all occupations of civil servants in the Government of Hong Kong SAR.
Concepts and definitions
Employment:
civil servants are persons who are employed on civil service terms of appointment on the survey reference date. Excluded are Independent Commission Against Corruption Officers, judges and judicial officers in the Judiciary, and locally-engaged staff working in overseas Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices.
Vacancies:
unfilled job openings which are immediately available and for which active recruitment steps are being taken on the survey reference date.
Classifications
Branch of economic activity (industry):
Title of the classification:
Hong Kong Standard Industrial Classification Version 1.1 (HSIC V1.1);
Number of groups used for coding:
83 (up to the three-digit level).
Applied to:
employment and vacancies.
Link to ISIC and level:
HSIC V1.1 is modelled on ISIC, Rev.2 at all levels, with adaptation for the industrial structure in Hong Kong SAR.
Other classifications:
employment by sex.
Data collection
Size and coverage of the administrative system:
about 100 reporting units, in terms of government departments and bureaux.
Data collection method:
departmental returns are submitted quarterly by government departments and bureaux to the Civil Service Bureau. The time lapse between the reference period of the data and data collection/processing is about 12 weeks.
Updating of the administrative system:
quarterly.
Data processing, editing and consistency checks
Data are processed by computer. The sum of the components is verified against the total for each reporting unit, and range checks are made with the corresponding figures for the previous quarter.
Adjustments
None.
Types of estimates
Totals.
Construction of indices
None.
Indicators of reliability of the estimates
Coverage of the administrative system:
exhaustive in terms of civil servants.
Available series
Quarterly number of civil servants and vacancies.
History of the statistics
Starting date of the statistical series:
March 1980.
Major changes and revisions:
in June 1999, a minor revision was made to the statistical definition of civil servants: since that month, judges and judicial officers in the Judiciary are excluded from the coverage of civil servants. The definition of civil service vacancies was also revised in June 1999, so that vacancies arising from posts pending deletion and posts held by temporary staff or reserved for other staff are excluded.
Prior to December 2001, figures on the number of civil servants and vacancies referred to the position at the beginning of January, April, July and October. They now refer to the last full working day of the same quarters.
Documentation and dissemination
Documentation:
Census and Statistics Department: Hong Kong Monthly Digest of Statistics (Hong Kong SAR);
Idem: Quarterly Report of Employment and Vacancies Statistics (ibid.);
Idem: Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics (ibid.).
These publications contain employment and vacancy statistics, and methodological information. The time lapse between the reference date and the release of statistics is 12 weeks.
Dissemination:
on Internet: http://www.info.qov.hk/censtatd
Data supplied to the ILO for dissemination
The following data are supplied to the ILO for publication in the Yearbook of Labour Statistics:
Number of employees in the civil service, as part of the statistics on paid employment by economic activity.