Office for Strategy and Planning of the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security (GEP/MTSSS)

Multidisciplinary  Team of Statistics

Praça de Londres, 2 - 3º - 1049-056 - Lisboa   - Portugal

The Labour Cost Survey 2020 in Portugal was obtained  through the combination two surveys: one, addressed to local units belonging to enterprises with less than 10 employees and another addressed to local units with 10 or more employees. The difference between the two is the number of variables, which is higher in the case of units with 10 and more employees.

• for economic activities: Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, Rev. 2 (2008) (NACE)
• for regions: Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, by regional level, version 2013 (NUTS)

 Sections B to S, including O (NACE Rev 2)

Statistical concepts and definitions are in line with the Commission Regulation (EC) No 1738/2005 and the Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 of 9 March 1999.

Local unit

Enterprises with at least 1employees belonging to Sections B to S, including O (NACE Rev 2)

Portugal

2020

n.a.

According to the COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1737/2005 and the Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999

Every 4 years, according to the COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1737/2005 and the Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999

The process of collecting information is fully performed in electronic format.

It was used a web survey to collect the data. The validations were embedded in the electronic questionnaire and were executed before transmitting the questionnaire. The checks performed by the software were according to plausibility and variable coherence. Warnings and fatal errors are created when data is outside the predefined standards. Fatal errors prevent data sending. It cannot be overruled, except by the statistical staff with a specific password.

Upon arrival to the statistical office, warning checks were again performed and corrected, if it was the case. 

Data is processed using the software IBM SPSS Statistics.

N.a.

Not available.
New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
Information (content) will be available after the next collection.

As set out in the Commission Regulation (EC) No 1737/2005 and the Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999

The main users of LCS results are, at national level:

• Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, for the definition of policies on wages, employment, social security and simultaneously, for policy evaluation;
• Statistics Portugal (INE), as one of the basis for the Labour Cost Index;
• The Ministry of Economy, for the analysis of the levels of labour costs and its structure, according to the industry and other characteristics of employers;
• Other public administration bodies;
• Employers, as a source of information for investment decision, and the definition of wages and employment strategies;
• Trade Unions, researchers, media, etc.

 At international level, the main users are Eurostat and other European Union bodies, and also ILO.

Since the first implementation of the LCS in Portugal, referring to the year 1984, the national users have enhanced the importance of the statistics resulting from the survey. However, no specific survey on the satisfaction of the users was conducted. The main issues raised by the users, observed through the contacts with the statistical office, are:

• Not enough breakdown at industry level. However, a broader breakdown in the portuguese survey would require a much larger sample and would raise a great number of confidential situations;
• The timeliness of data availability.

All mandatory variables according to Commission Regulation (EC) No 1738/2005 were submitted.

[Not requested]

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 Table 4 - Coefficients of variation by size band

The reference population is the study population.

The sampling frame for the LCS 2020 sample, in what regards the NACE Revision 2 Sections B to S and the private units for Sections O, P, Q and R is the register of enterprises with 1 or more employees and respective local units obtained through the administrative source Relatório Único – Quadro de Pessoal (Unique Report - Personal Lists), updated comprehensibly each year with reference to the month of October. This administrative source is mandatory, for reasons of inspection of the labour legislation, for enterprises and other entities with employees covered by social security regimes other than the civil servants and military regimes. The sample was designed and selected based on the register relating to October 2020 and updated with information received from the enterprises by other surveys and information transmitted by the enterprises.

The sampling frame for NACE Rev. 2 Section O and the “public” units of Sections B to S was the register made available by the Directorate General for Administration and Public Employment (DGAEP).

The estimated under coverage rate was 2.6% (new units).  

The estimated over coverage rate was 5.1 % (cancelled units).

The estimated under coverage rate was 2.6% (new units).  

The estimated over coverage rate was 5.1 % (cancelled units). 

The estimated over coverage rate was 5.1 % (cancelled units)

[Not reqN.a.uested]

The national questionnaire used for LC surveys for enterprises with 10 or more employees has been kept quite unchanged since 1992, except in what regards the Eurostat requirements. The questionnaire for enterprises with 1 to 9 employees is also in place since 2004. Due to the changes in the labour market in 2020 caused by Covid 19 it was necessary to introduce additional variables:

a) no. of employees on layoff or with reduced normal working hours 

b) no. of hours paid and not worked due to layoff or reduction of normal working hours.

For the whole population, the unit response rate was 57% .Unit non-response is treated by re-weighting on the basis of the register updated to 2020. The set of responding units within each stratum is considered as the sample. For strata with only non-responses, no imputation was done.

Item non-response was not allowed.

 The variable which has presented more difficulties to the enterprises, was “payments for days not worked”. Non-responses to this variable were also not allowed, so the enterprises had to impute the figures, sometimes with the assistance of the statistical office. The recommended procedure to impute this variable was to consider the payments for paid holidays and public holidays and also paid sick leaves or other paid absences, when recorded (the recorded absences were also asked for in the questionnaire). This methodology can produce an under statement in the figures for this variable, which can be considered as negligible, since the large majority of sick leave absences are not paid. 

Unit non-response rate: 43%

Item non-response is not allowed

It was used a web survey to collect the data. The validations were embedded in the electronic questionnaire and were executed before transmitting the questionnaire. The checks performed by the software were according to plausibility and variable coherence. Warnings and fatal errors are created when data is outside the predefined standards. Fatal errors prevent data sending. It cannot be overruled, except by the statistical staff with a specific password.Upon arrival to the statistical office, warning checks were again performed and corrected, if it was the case. 

Item non-response was not allowed.

Variance estimation was conducted using the software IBM SPSS Statistics, version 22.0 and the Complex Samples add-on module.

[Not requested]

[Not requested]

n.a.

[Not requested]

17 months after the reference period. 

[Not requested]

[Not requested]

Data transmission was done 1 month before the deadline.

[Not requested]

The Portuguese LCS 2020 follows the recommendations of Eurostat and presents no deviations from the definitions of the variables.

[Not requested]

No overtime changes were introduced in the survey, except the ones required by Eurostat. 

[Not requested]

Data from LCS was compared with LFS (number of hours actually worked per employee) , SBS (wages and salaries),  LCI ( annual growth rates of labour costs) and National Accounts

[Not requested]

[Not requested]

[Not requested]

Data are analysed and evaluated in order to ensure the coherence between them.

n.a.

The results of LCS 2020 are disseminated by a Statistical Summary and a Publication (on the Internet Web site: Sínteses / Publicações - Gabinete de Estratégia e Planeamento (mtsss.gov.pt)

Additional information can be provided on request to the users, in table format.

There is no online database for the results of the LCS 2020.

[Not requested]

The microdata can be accessed by accredited researchers after anonymization. The requests should be adressed to Statistics Portugal.

n.a.

The publication contains a chapter on the concepts and methodologies used, together with illustrative texts and graphs.

In addition, a more detailed methodological document is also available on GEP and Statistics Portugal websites (https://smi.ine.pt/DocumentacaoMetodologica/Detalhes/1658)

n.a.

[Not requested]

[Not requested]

No studies were carried out.

At the national level, the Portuguese Constitution specifies in Article 35, n.º 2, "the concept of personal data, as well as the conditions applicable to automatic processing, connection, transmission and utilization, and guarantees their protection, including through independent administrative authority". This regulation is made by the National Commission for the Protection of Personal Data. Moreover, statistical confidentiality is guaranteed in the National Statistical System Law  by which the GEP/MTSSS (Office for Strategy and Planning of the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security) is governed. The same Act defines as very serious contravention violation of statistical confidentiality (Article 26) and criminal responsibility (Article 32), punishable under Articles 195, 196 and 383 of Penal Code in the context of crimes of violation of statistical confidentiality.

The general principles of confidentiality are applied throughout the production process and statistical disclosure. In particular, the process of collecting information and the same is already almost fully performed in eleby a respondent cannot be accessed or viewed by another respondent. This information is stored in specific databases and there is a procedure for data encryption. This guarantee of security of data transmission is publicly available and is also in all rating instruments. There are implemented mechanisms and procedures of computer security, which guarantee that the information submitted could not be acessed by unauthorized persons.

The quality standards as defined for each statistical operation and included in the respective Methodological Document.Besides this,  Explanatory notes are included in the tables when needed.