Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia

Labour Statistics Department

Litostrojska cesta 54,
SI-1000 Ljubljana

The survey Labour Cost Index is carried out according to the REGULATION (EC) No 450/2003 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27 February 2003 concerning the labour cost index, COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1216/2003 of 7 July 2003 implementing Regulation (EC) No 450/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the labour cost index, Corrigendum to Commission Regulation (EC) No 1216/2003 of 7 July 2003 implementing Regulation (EC) No 450/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the labour cost index and COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 224/2007 of 1 March 2007 amending Regulation (EC) No 1216/2003 as regards the economic activities covered by the labour cost index.

The quarterly Labour Cost Index is defined as labour costs divided by the hours worked in the reference quarter. Labour Costs include employee compensation, with wages and salaries in cash and in kind, employers' social security contributions and employment taxes regarded as labour costs minus any subsidies received. Vocational training costs or other expenditure such as recruitment costs and spending on working clothes are excluded. Labour costs are defined in the COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1737/2005 of 21 October 2005 amending Regulation (EC) No 1726/1999 as regards the definition and transmission of information on labour costs.

Classification used is the NACE Rev. 2 according to the REGULATION (EC) No 1893/2006 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 20 December 2006 establishing the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Revision 2 and amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 as well as certain EC Regulations on specific statistical domains.

All activities A-S according to the NACE Rev. 2 are covered.

The labour cost index shows quarterly movement of labour costs per hours worked. The collected data are the source for analyzing labour costs on the labour market and enable comparison between labour costs on the Slovenian labour market and on international labour markets.

Statistical unit is Local Kind of Activity Unit (LKAU).

Observation units are legal persons of the public and private sectors or their units registered for performing activity in the Republic of Slovenia. All persons in paid employment who signed the employment contracts (contract work is not taken into consideration), employed for fixed or unspecified period of time, irrespective of whether they work full time or part time, are taken into consideration.

Registered natural persons (Individual private entrepreneurs) and persons employed by them, own account workers, workers in employment promotion schemes, posted workers and farmers are not covered.

The whole country (Slovenia) is covered.

Data are available from the first quarter of 2000.

The base year is 2016

For calculating the labour costs index only existing sources are used: data on payments of general government revenues on certain accounts (payroll tax (eliminated on 1 January 2009), employer's contributions for employment, for maternity care, for health insurance for work-related injuries and occupational disease and for pension and disability insurance) – source: Public Payments Administration of the Republic of Slovenia as well as the monthly statistical survey on Earnings of Persons in Paid Employment by Legal Persons, the Labour Force Survey, the Labour Costs Survey, Working Time Structure and Hours Worked – source: the Statistical Office.

 Table 3.2: Frequency of data collection 

For the monthly statistical survey on Earnings of Persons in Paid Employment by Legal Persons for the private sector data are collected by electronic questionnaire. For the public sector data are from existing source ISPAP (the Information System for the Transmission and Analysis of Data on Earnings, Other Payments and the Number of Employees in the Public Sector) from Ministry of Public Administration.

For Labour Cost Survey existing sources are used (Statistical Register of Employment - SRE) and data from the web questionnaire must be fulfilled by the business entities selected in the sample. Data with the questionnaire are collected by the The Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Related Services (AJPES).

The source of the data on working time structure is the 4-yearly Survey on Working Time Structure (ZAP-SDČ); data refer to the working time structure of employees in the observed year, i.e. a year prior to the year of data collection.

Data sources used to obtain the data for the hours worked are other statistical surveys (Earnings of persons in paid employment by Legal Persons, Earnings of persons in paid employment by Registered Natural Persons, Labour Force Survey, Working Time Structure Survey, Statistical Register of Employment) and administrative record (Temporary/Permanent Absence from Work due to Illness, Injury, Care, Escort and Other Reasons (source NIJZ) and calendar (data on the number of public holidays and non-working days)).

Administrative data for other labour costs (employer's statutory social contributions) are available in Public Payments Administration of the Republic of Slovenia's database and are transferred automatically.

Data for the monthly statistical survey on Earnings of Persons in Paid Employment by Legal Persons are validated by logic controls incorporated in the questionnaire and by controls included in the statistical data editing. Administrative data are controled by responsible institutions for the source (Tax Administration of the Republic of Slovenia). After data compilation another set of checking on joined data is performed, both on micro-level and on aggregated data.

The components comprising labour costs come from two sources; data from the monthly statistical survey on Earnings of Persons in Paid Employment by Legal Persons and administrative data from Public Payments Administration of the Republic of Slovenia are merged on individual level by number of transaction account and company ID. For legal persons that are involved in the calculation of labour cost indices missing data for social contributions are imputed. The criteria for imputing missing data is as follows:

The imputation of missing data is done on monthly data on labour costs and for all groups of activities (from A to S) in the following way: in every group of activity first the variable persons in paid employment who received earnings and the gross earnings variables are standardised, then for every unit that has no data for the social contributions variable the nearest neighbour among legal persons that have these data is looked for (more precisely: only among those legal persons whose share of social contributions compared to gross wage is in the  [0.15,0.2] interval) in view of the standardised variables for persons in paid employment and for gross earnings and in view of the defined Euclidean metrics in the space of these two variables. From this neighbour the share of the social contributions variable is taken over regarding the sum of gross earnings variable and for the given unit the sum of gross earnings is multiplied by these share. In this way the values for the missing data for the social contributions variable is obtained. 

The number of hours worked is estimated with the help of the quarterly statistical survey Hours Worked.

In calculating labour cost indices the components payroll taxes (until January 2009) and social contributions obtained from the PPA are used. One of the main activities of the PPA is the collection of all payment transactions for the needs of the TA. There are two main differences between administrative and statistical concept: the availability of data and the period of collection. The PPA data are collected at the level of the business entity, while the statistical data on earnings are collected at the level of local kind of activity unit. Data on business entity’s transactions from the PPA are allocated among units with the help of data on persons in paid employment who received earnings, collected with the the monthly statistical survey on Earnings of Persons in Paid Employment by Legal Persons. The second major difference is the period of collecting the data, where PPA data are collected in the month, while the monthly statistical survey on Earnings of Persons in Paid Employment by Legal Persons data are collected for the reference month. Therefore for the calculations month T is taken from the the monthly statistical survey on Earnings of Persons in Paid Employment by Legal Persons and month T+1 for data from the PPA. Another difference is in the form of data transmission. The PPA data are sent for each individual transaction (payments in and out of the business entity, reversals, etc.). For actual payments needed for the LCI calculation the data need to be recalculated at the level of the business entity according to guidelines provided by the PPA.

Table 3.5: Number of hours worked for all activities (A-S) and activity C by NACE Rev. 2

No adjustment is needed.

Key quality indicators are calculated regularly.

Annual Quality Report is prepared Slovene in English version.

The main users of survey results on Labour Cost Index (LCI) are the Institute of Macroeconomic Analyses and Development, the Bank of Slovenia, the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, the Association of Employers of Slovenia and trade unions. Another important user is the National Accounts Sector of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS). Other users of survey results on LCI are various research institutes, domestic and foreign companies, students and the media.
The most important national users are the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, the Institute of Macroeconomic Analyses and Development and the Employers' Association of Slovenia, which also actively participated in designing the questionnaire for the Labour Costs Survey. Many national users would prefer to have quarterly data on labour costs in absolute amounts instead of indices because they think that in this way they could easier understand what is going on in the field of labour costs.
Major foreign users of survey data are Eurostat, the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the International Labour Organisation. Data are sent to Eurostat in accordance with the EU Regulation, not later than 70 days after the reference period.

There is user service on the level of NSI. At least once per 1.5 year Statistical Advisory Committee is held, where main and other users can express their needs. Key users are treated individually on request.

In the quarterly calculation of Labour Cost Indices the articles of the EU Regulation regarding LCI are fully implemented with a few exceptions:

• Labour costs of registered natural persons (individual private entrepreneurs) and persons employed by them, workers in employment promotion schemes, posted workers and farmers are not covered.
• Holiday bonuses and wages in kind are not part of the national wage system and because the Monthly Earnings Survey is the basic source for calculating labour cost indices, these items are not covered in the LCI calculation.
• In the LCI_TXB bonuses linked to the individual performance are not excluded (no extra information on the event).
• Subsidies are not included in the index calculation (no source on quarterly level).

The ratio of the number of data cells provided to the number of data cells required is 100%.

Not applicable (census survey).

Not applicable (census survey)

Not applicable (census survey)

See 6.3.1. - 6.3.5.

Coverage error shows persons in paid employment by groups of activities covered by the Monthly Earnings Survey in the calculation of indices compared to the estimate of the number of persons in paid employment according to National Accounts.

Table 6.3.1: Shares of persons in paid employment in LCI compared to number of employees in National Accounts (in %)

* Change in the methodology of the Monthly Earnings Survey.

Table 6.3.1.1: Weighted over-coverage rate for the monthly statistical survey on Earnings of Persons in Paid Employment by Legal Persons

Table 6.3.1.2: Common units - proportion (the monthly statistical survey on Earnings of Persons in Paid Employment by Legal Persons and administrative data from Public Payments Administration of the Republic of Slovenia)

In the process of data entering for the monthly statistical survey on Earnings of Persons in Paid Employment by Legal Persons hard and soft logic controls are built-in. In case of hard mistake it must be corrected while soft mistake is just a warning for possible mistake where data must be checked. In the later stage automatic data editing is performed.

See 6.3.3.1. - 6.3.3.2.

Table 6.3.3.1: Unit non-response rate for the monthly statistical survey on Earnings of Persons in Paid Employment by Legal Persons

Variable used for the calculation of the weighted rate:

The number of persons in paid employment who received earnings.

The item non-response is discussed in such a way so as to assign the missing data zero value, and is estimated only if such zero value is the reason the record „fails” at one of the logical controls. Such imputations are carried out during the phase of automatic data editing. The adopted concept can lead us to a consideration that there is no item non-response, and we therefore do not present the levels of item non-response.

See 6.3.4.1

Table 6.3.4.1 a: Imputation and editing rate for the monthly statistical survey on Earnings of Persons in Paid Employment by Legal Persons for variable Gross earnings paid out for the reference month

Data are imputed / edited due to non-response or errors noticed in the data editing procedure.

Table 6.3.4.1 b: Shares of data editing for PPA data (%)

* Eliminated on 1 January 2009.

not applicable

From 3Q 2016 for seasonal adjustment of time series we started to use JDemetra+ software instead of Demetra+ software. Time series models were carefully revised and, if necessary, changed. The entire period was taken into account. Due to software replacement and changed models, larger revisions in seasonal adjustment results are possible.

For seasonal adjustment of time series JDemetra+ software, i.e. the TRAMO/SEATS method is used. A time series model is set up, which is revised in detail about once a year, taking into account the period available at that time. If the model is changed, we strive to minimize the changes. Using the model the time series is decomposed into the trend-cycle component, the seasonal component and the irregular component. The trend-cycle component consists of the trend and cyclical movements over a period longer than one year. The seasonal component consists of the seasonal effects and the calendar effects. Calendar effects are composed of the working day effect, the leap-year effect, the holiday effect and the Easter effect. The irregular component consists of random fluctuations and some outliers. Seasonal and calendar effects are eliminated from the time series only if they are statistically significant. If only seasonal effects are significant and calendar effects are not, then only seasonal effects are eliminated. Original data, seasonally adjusted data and working day adjusted data are published.

See link.

Currently data are nationaly published as provisional. Final data are expected to be published after the planned revision of the survey as well as hours worked calculation, probably by the end of 2024.

not applicable

See 7.1.1. - 7.1.2.

Data were published as First release in Slovenia as follows:

2022Q1:  T + 69 days

2022Q2:  T + 69 days

2022Q3:  T + 68 days

2022Q4:  T + 68 days

Data were sent via Edamis to Eurostat as follows:

2022Q1:  T + 69 days

2022Q2:  T + 70 days

2022Q3:  T + 70 days

2022Q4:  T + 69 days

Not applicable as the first result is considered as final.

See 7.2.1.

Data were published on the same date as annunced.

Methodology and survey results are comparible with EU Regulations regarding LCI.

not applicable

Before the introduction of the Laspeyres indices a different method of data capture and a different methodology of calculating labour cost indices were used. The indices claculated were normal indices (not Laspeyres chain indices) and the data on paid hours from the monthly statistical survey on Earnings of Persons in Paid Employment by Legal Persons were used in the calculation. Not all legal persons were covered in the calculation but only those legal persons that were at the same time also covered by the PPA. In addition, missing data on social contributions and payroll taxes were not imputed.
In introducing the new methodology of calculating the labour cost index different structures of data from the PPA were available. Since 2000 data at the level of transactions daily are available but data on social contributions for 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 are only available at the national level. With the help of data collected with  the monthly statistical survey on Earnings of Persons in Paid Employment by Legal Persons – in which data on gross wages for these years are available monthly, for every enterprise and its units – social contributions and payroll taxes for individual quarters were estimated.

Time series are available since 1st quarter 2000.

For all NACE sections procedures are the same.

Annual labour costs data for 2022 are available in October 2023.

NA data on compensation of employees per hours worked are not available, so we used data on compensation of employees, which are compared with the growth of expenditure calculated with the quarterly calculation of Labour Cost Indices.
The differences in the growth rates are mostly the result of different data sources, different data collection methodologies and different definitions.

Table 8.5: Annual growth rates of sum of labour costs from LCI and sum of compensation of employees from NA (corresponding to A6 breakdown by NACE Rev.2)

(previous year = 100)

Data are available only on section level.

Survey results are published in the First Release and in in the SiStat Database. In the First Release only data on the most important fields are shown. In every release only the most important data and charts are contained that are important as short-term indicators of the developments and are useful for the preparation of various macroeconomic analyses. The First Release is prepared immediately after the processing of the statistical survey is finished and is published on the website of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia and also sent to users by e-mail.

Data in the First Release are published as provisional because of planned revision in the future when a new methodology of hours worked will be introduced. In every issue of the First Release short data description is contained, including year on year growth of non-seasonally adjusted LCI at the national level for each quarter and a chart of seasonally adjusted total LCI with 2016 as a base year. Also attached are unadjusted, seasonally adjusted and working day adjusted indices by sections of activities for all 4 components of LCI (TOT, WAG, OTH and TXB) for all sections of activities (A-S by NACE Rev. 2) from the 1st quarter of 2000 to the last available quarter. The First Releases for 2021 can be found on the website of the Statistical Office:

• First Release for 1st quarter 2022
• First Release for 2nd quarter 2022
• First Release for 3rd quarter 2022
• First Release for 4th quarter 2022

See 9.1.

Data on labour cost indices are available in SiStat database and on the Eurostat website.

In case of special data inquiry special tables are made.

Micro-data are stored in an Oracle database, which cannot be accessed by external users.

Not applicable

Methodological Explanations in English language are available on the link http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/File/DocSysFile/8089/07-151-ME.pdf.

See link http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/methods-and-classifications/quality-reports.

Not applicable

Not applicable

No extra burden for reporting units because only existing sources are used.

SURS treats all data of all our reporting units (households, persons and enterprises) confidential according to our National Statistics Act, other laws and internal acts. The dissemination of the data must not allow any identification of a reporting unit or disclosure of sensitive data, therefore the data are protected in accordance with the rules of statistical disclosure control. The access to the data is enabled only for the employees, who need the access due to the nature of their work.

Dissemination: SURS checks the data for the dissemination in terms of the risk of identificartion and sensitivity. Rules used for the determination of the primary sensitive data are threshold, dominance rule, p%-rule; for secondary suppresion we use method Modular inside Tau-Argus, softwear for a protection of tabular data. All links between tables are taken into account at applying SDC methods.

Microdata: Microdata are available only in the secure room or via remote access. All direct identifiers are removed from microdata sets and all outputs are checked by SURS' methodologists to prevent any identification of the unit or diclosure of sensitive data.

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