INS (National Institute for Statistics)

Wages, Labour Cost, Job Vacancies and Education Statistics

Institutul National de Statistica (INS)
16, Libertatii Avenue, district 5
Bucharest
RO-050706

Persons employed in Construction.

Labour input indicators are collected through the monthly survey on short term statistics (UNICA) for Sections B to N (IND-TS, CON-TS, SERV-TS) and through the monthly survey on earnings (S1) for Sections A, O to S.
Until the end of 2004, the same survey was used (monthly survey on earnings). Starting from January 2005, for Sections B to N, the questionnaire used for monthly survey on earnings was enclosed (together with others on turnover, industrial production etc.) in a common survey on short term statistics.

NACE Rev. 2.

Activities covered

All required activities are covered: divisions for NACE Rev. 2 Section F.

Size classes covered

All size classes are covered, excepting units with less than 4 employees from economical sector.

The “Number of persons employed” (variable 210) that is monthly provided to Eurostat is collected in accordance with the CR no. 1503/2006 implementing and amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 concerning short-term statistics as regards definitions of variables, list of variables and frequency of data compilation.
Data collection for variable 210 “Number of persons employed” comprise:

o number of employees (variable 211),
o unpaid working proprietors (owners),
o unpaid family workers.

The number of persons employed, other than employees does not represent a significant proportion in the total “number of persons employed (variable 210). In 2017, for STS_CONS the overall proportion is about 0.02%

Concerning the EMPL variable, the national questionnaire contains indicators on:
— the number of employees at the end of the month – “Employees” are all persons who have a working contract/agreement with the unit at the end of the reference month, irrespective of its duration (permanent or temporary) and the working program (full-time or part-time);
— the average number of employees (variable 211) – calculated as a simple arithmetic mean of daily number of employees, divided by the total number of calendar days in the month; are excluded all employees who during the reference month have not received any remuneration from the employer (i.e.: employees in unpaid leaves, in strike, working abroad); The daily number of employees does not include, for the calculation of the average number,the following categories: employees in unpaid leave, on strike, detached abroad. During the weekend days, legal holidays and other non-working days, the number of employees from the previous day is used for calculation, less those whose labour contract/agreement ceased that day. In case the enterprise has been set up or has ceased its activity during the month, the daily manpower is used for the calculation only for the period when it operated, and the resulting sum is divided by the total number of calendar days of the respective month;
— the average number of persons employed, other than employees – comprising employed persons who do not have employment contract and are not on the payroll of the unit, namely: employers who perform economic activity in their own unit and who works only for profit, dividends (and not salaries) and contributing family workers who are persons working in an unit belonging to their family or other relative, helping them without receiving remuneration (in cash or in kind).

Planned changes in information collected : None.

Accounting conventions : Data are collected monthly, the reference period is the previous calendar month.

Reporting unit : Close to the local unit.

Observation unit(s) : Close to the local unit.

The sampling frame used for the sample selection is drawn from the Romanian Business Register (REGIS), which contained all enterprises, authorities and organisations as well as their local units that carried out any economic activity irrespective of their size or if they belong to the private or public sector (211346 units). The Business Register is updated, yearly, on the balance sheets and contains the latest information on each enterprise in the statistical population such as the identification items (unique identification code, address etc.), economic activity codes (NACE Rev.2), number of employees (giving the enterprise size class).

The entire country is covered.

No activities outside the geographical coverage are included.

Date of first use as a source

Since 1992 collecting data on the main activity of the unit. From 2001 data are collected for the KAU.

Not applicable to this statistic. Only absolute values are published.

The average number of persons employed is expressed in persons.

Month.

Legal basis

All statistics collected and published by INS are governed by the statistical Law no. 226/2009 regarding the organisation of official statistics, published in Romania's Official Journal First part, no. 397/11.06.2009, with further amendments.

Obligation on units to provide data

Participation is compulsory.

Planned changes in legal basis, obligation to respond and frame used

None

Data on persons employed are not sent to other international organizations.

Dissemination of terms and conditions under which official statistics are produced, including confidentiality of individual responses

All statistics collected and published by INS are governed by the statistical Law no. 226/2009 regarding the organisation of official statistics, published in Romania's Official Journal First part, no. 397/11.06.2009, with further amendments. The Law specifies that: the official statistical services are authorised to ask for and receive free of charge statistical data and information from all natural and legal persons who are located, hold any kind of capital or carry out any type of activity on the Romanian territory.

Also under the provision of this law, INS cannot publish, or otherwise make available to one individual or organisation, statistics that could enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity.

No government official outside the National Institute of Statistics has access to the data before release to the public.

INS has been repeatedly and publicly recognised by the government as fully intellectually independent: it decides by itself which data to collect, which methodology to use, and which results, methodological notes and commentaries are published.

The most important aspects on the organisation of the official statistics in Romanian are posted on the National Institute of Statistics Internet website (http://www.insse.ro). Copies of the statistical laws are available in Romanian from the library of the National Institute of Statistics, 16, Libertatii Avenue, Bucharest, District 5.

A rule of a minimum number of units is applied. Generally, confidential data are aggregated to avoid disclosure.
Also under the provision of the statistical law, INS cannot publish, or otherwise make available to an individual or organization, statistics that could enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity.

There is an advance release calendar of data dissemination which can be found on the website (http://www.insse.ro/cms/en/comunicate-de-presa-view).
The results of the monthly survey are disseminated at M+37 days by press release and via INS Internet website (http://www.insse.ro/cms/en), Monthly Statistical Bulletin  (http://www.insse.ro/cms/en) and TEMPO data base (http://statistici.insse.ro/shop/?lang=en).

http://www.insse.ro/cms/en/comunicate-de-presa-view

Simultaneous release to all interested parties

Monthly data on wages are available to all users simultaneously at the time of release through the press release and via INS Internet website (http://www.insse.ro/cms/en).

Identification of internal government access to data before release

No government official outside the National Institute of Statistics has access to the data before release to the public.

Transmission to Eurostat and further use of the statistics

Data are transmitted to Eurostat as absolute values by e-DAMIS using GESMES/TS format within 37 days (calendar days) from the end of the reference month.

Monthly

Identification of ministerial commentary on the occasion of statistical releases

No ministerial commentary is attached to the release of data by the statistical office.

No news release on persons employed is available.

Name of national paper publications

Data on the number of employees at the end of the month, by NACE Rev.2 sections and divisions are published in the monthly publications "Buletinul statistic lunar" (Monthly Statistic Bulletin), "Buletinul statistic lunar al judetului" (Monthly County Statistic Bulletin),“Buletinul Statistic al Industriei“ (Monthly Statistical Bulletin of Industry).

Name of national electronic dissemination

Same titles as for paper versions, available on website of INS (http://www.insse.ro/cms/en;http://statistici.insse.ro/shop/?lang=en).

On-line TEMPO data base both in Romanian and English.

No access

Planned changes in national dissemination methods

Data are transmitted to Eurostat.

Dissemination of documentation on methodology and sources used in preparing statistics

Brief details of the methodology are included with the published data.

Description of standard tables produced

Data on the number of employees at the end of the month are presented at the Division level (2-digit level) and Section level of NACE Rev.2, in thousands persons (aggregated by KAU). The “Monthly Statistical Bulletin” and “Monthly Statistical Bulletin of Industry” publishes time series of the number of employees at the end of the month, expressed in thousands persons, for the current month and the previous 11 months broken down by economic activities.

The quality indicators are calculated taking into account Eurostat defined methodology, in accordance with the following quality criteria: relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, comparability, consistency, and completeness.

Summary description of quality criteria calculated for national purposes

Under ESS Code of Practice.

Users’ needs are met taking into account the usefulness and timeliness of data.

The data are presented in various dissemination formats and breakdowns.

The data are transmitted in accordance with the national and Eurostat timetable.

The main international user: Eurostat.

The main national users are grouped as following: governmental bodies: Ministry of Public Finances, Ministry of Labor and Social Justice, National Agency for Employment; National Commission for Prognosis; employers and employers’ associations; trade unions; professional associations; research institutes and universities; mass-media; students, doctorates.

Their main needs: The Monthly Survey on Short-Term Statistics outcomes, in relation with the information provided by other surveys, are used by policy makers in establishing the actions and measures for economic development strategies as well as for implementing the programs on active measures for reducing the unemployment and on remuneration and pension system.

The Monthly Survey on Short-Term Statistics outcomes, in relation with the information provided by other surveys, are used by policy makers in establishing the actions and measures for economic development strategies as well as for implementing the programs on active measures for reducing the unemployment and on remuneration and pension system. The monthly gross earnings are used in the pension calculation.

No user satisfaction survey is available.

All breakdowns and variable forms are provided, according to the EU regulations in force.

Accuracy in the statistical sense denotes the closeness of computations or estimates to the exact or true values. Statistics are not equal with the true values because of variability (the statistics change from implementation to implementation of the survey due to random effects) and bias (the average of the possible values of the statistics from implementation to implementation is not equal to the true value due to systematic effects). 

Sampling bias is a possible source of sampling errors. It leads to sampling errors which either have a prevalence to be positive or negative. Such errors can be considered to be systematic errors.

For detailed information see Annex 2.

Response rate

On average the response rate for STS_CONS having 2017 as reference year is 93,7% (counting responses and other responding units), of which 10,5% enterprises were imputed from administrative sources (were imputed the enterprises found with data in the administrative sources and had one of the following non-response causes in the survey: refusal, contact not established, outside scope of survey, unidentified, dormant, ceased, other events); the refusal rate after data imputation was about 0.3%; the initial refusal rate was about 4.0%.

Actions to speed up or increase the rate of response

Starting with 2011, the on-line data collection was introduced in order to increase the response rate and reduce the burden on statisticians' responsible with data collection and entry. When necessary, telephone and e-mail contacts are used.

Timeliness

All the activities carried out by INS during a year are scheduled through the Activity Plan with several months earlier. Annually, INS issues for the users a press release calendar and a catalogue of statistical products and services containing the names, periodicity, short descriptions and release dates for all publications.

The publication dates for the monthly indicators were disseminated in accordance with the legal requirements as follows:

• European level (Eurostat): M+37 of each month;
• National level:

Monthly Statistical Bulletin (MSB) and TEMPO data base - M+37 of each month.

Timetable of data collection

The activities for preparing and carrying out the Monthly Survey on Short-Term Statistics 2017 are described in the Annex.

The process concerning the deadlines for the respondents to reply was performed as follows:

-          the units have to fill in the paper questionnaires and send them to the territorial statistical offices until 15^th of the month following the reference month.

-          the units can also fill in the on line questionnaires until around 23^rd of the month following the reference month.

The process concerning the covering recalls and follow-ups was performed as follows:

-          from 15^th till the 25^th of the month following the reference month, the territorial statistical offices had to perform data entry and data checking.

In this phase, the covering recalls and follow-ups are taking place. The statisticians from the local offices contact or re contact the units/respondents who did not sent the data, irrespective of their size classes, but the stress was more on the enterprises with more than 50 employees, who are exhaustively surveyed and on those from the public sector. Since not all respondents comply with the deadline requested, a small proportion of questionnaires reach with delay the territorial statistical offices.

Data processing steps and the related periods were:

At local level (regional/county statistical office) the data processing consisted in:

- data collection – until 15^th of the following month of the reference month;

- data entry and validation - from 15^th of the following month of the reference month till the 25^th day of the month;

At central level (INS) the data processing consisted in:

 - data validation – errors were detected and sent for correction or explanations to the statistical offices;

 - comparative analysis with the previous month, the same month of the previous year and with other data sources (surveys and administrative data);

 - the analysis of the non-weighted data;

 - the weighting procedures;

 - the analysis of the weighted data;

 - data tabulation; 

 - monthly data preparation for dissemination in the press releases, the Monthly Statistical Bulletin, the TEMPO (on-line) database.

 - transposing into the STS standard format for data transmission designed by Eurostat;

 - transmission of final results to Eurostat;

All deadlines are met.

Definition of statistical units - There is no deviation from European concepts:

The unit of selection was the enterprise defined according to the communitarian rules for enterprises statistics as: ,,the smallest combination of legal units that is an organisational unit producing goods or services, which benefits from a certain degree of autonomy in decision-making, especially for the allocation of its current resources. An enterprise carries out one or more activities at one or more locations. An enterprise may be a sole legal unit”.

The observation unit of the Monthly survey on short term statistics was close to local unit.

Populations - There is no deviation from European concepts:

The Romanian Business Register was designed and implemented based on the administrative files (REGIS, which is the Fiscal Register, updated annually) and statistical sources in addition (Trade Register, Balance Sheet files, VAT files, feedback from other surveys, used as consultation data sources for improving the quality of the register data).

According to the Council Regulations, REGIS contained the following types of statistical units: legal unit, enterprise, and local unit. All the enterprises having the main activity in the section A to S - NACE Rev.2, whatever their size (number of employees) were covered.

The Romanian Business Register contained all enterprises, authorities and organisations as well as their local units in Romania that carried out any economic activity irrespective of their size or if they belong to the private or public sector. The following institutional sectors were covered:

• Non-financial corporate and quasi-corporate enterprises
• Central and local administration
• Social security institutions and private non-profit institutions serving households

In respect to the budgetary institutions and public administration REGIS was the most complete register in Romania, based on Official Journal and the collaboration with a lot of administration institutions.

Reference times - There is no deviation from European concepts:

The statistics on persons employed were produced with monthly periodicity.

Classifications - There is no deviation from European concepts:

The national classification of economic activities is covered by CAEN Rev.2 fully harmonized with NACE Rev.2

Definitions of variables -There is no deviations from European concepts:

The definitions of the variable was developed and adopted in accordance with European standards (Council Regulation no.1165/1998 concerning short-term statistics and Regulation (EC) no 1158/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 concerning short-term statistics.

Starting with 2005 the average number of persons employed, other than employees was introduced in accordance with the EU regulations requests. No other change was made for the number of persons employed indicator.

Dissemination of information that support statistical cross-checks and provide assurance of reasonableness

The different sources of data allow comparisons to be made and for checks of reasonableness. Users need to be aware of the differences in methodology which are made clear in the publications.

The “Monthly Statistical Bulletin” publishes time series data (monthly data for the current month and the previous 11 months) on the number of employees at the end of the month broken down by economic activities. The number of employees at the end of the month by economic activities is also disseminated on-line, via TEMPO data base.

Data are coherent at different NACE Rev. 2 aggregation levels.

The burden per indicator and domain in 2012 was as follows:

Unit/enterprise level:

Average number of persons: 1989

Time spent (man-hour)/year: 6660

The estimated burden per indicator in 2012 was about 17 minutes per month for each person per indicator.

Territorial + Central Level (statistical offices):

Average number of persons: 284

Time spent (man-hour)/year: 6002

Revisions (very rare) when major methodological changes occurred and the users are informed through metadata when the figures are published.

No revisions are expected, data are considered final.

Provision of information about revision and advance notice of major changes in methodology

Data are operative but final.

Type of source : All labour input data are obtained from a monthly statistical survey on enterprises. The monthly sample for 2017 was about 24000 units.

Frame on which the source is based : REGIS – Romanian statistical business register, which contains all enterprises, authorities and organisations as well as their local units in Romania that carry out any economic activity irrespective of their size or if they belong to the private or public sector

Sample or census : Stratified sample survey.

Criteria for stratification : Activity (2-digit level of NACE Rev. 2) and size class of the units.

Threshold values and percentages : 

All economic units with 50 employees or more are included. For the remainder a sample is drawn.

4 - 49 employees: 4,3%

50 and more employees: 100%

Frequency of updating the sample : Annually.

Monthly.

Questionnaires used in the survey : All labour input variables are collected on the same questionnaire sent to all units irrespective of their activity. For activities corresponding to Construction, the questionnaire is included in the monthly survey on short term statistics.

Planned changes in national questionnaires : None.

Data collection media : Data are collected by paper questionnaire or on-line through eSOP application posted on INS web-site. The paper questionnaire and methodological notes are available on INS web-site (word or pdf) or are sent to the reporting units and then collected by territorial statistical offices.

Planned changes in data collection methodology : None.

The IT solution for Monthly survey on short-term statistics was developed to find out the measurement and processing errors occurred in different stages of the survey. The application was designed for on-line data collection and validation.

The IT solution allowed to perform on line data entry and validation at unit level. Also, the IT solution allowed to perform data entry and validation for questionnaires received on paper by post/email at county level (42 counties in total – NUTS3 level).

The IT solution contained the following categories of logical tests that check:

-          the primary data from the questionnaires;

-          the logical flows among the questionnaire chapters;

-          the data integrity and correctness;

-          the data comparability with the previous month.

The logical tests have the scope:

-          to follow and check the logical flows of the questionnaire;

-          to correlate data from related chapters of the questionnaire;

-          to define and check certain limits to which the indicators should belong compared to their evolution over time and between them;

-          to find out the outliers or non-logical values.

The tests for data integrity check the identification information from the sample of units with the information from respondent files.

At central level more accurate and detailed procedures were developed using Visual Fox for checking data integrity and correctness:

-          data comparison with the previous months;

-          data comparison with other sources (Job Vacancies on the number of occupied posts, Wages survey for month October, Labour Cost Survey and Administrative sources);

-          non-weighted procedures;

-          adjustment and weighting procedures;

-          data tabulation;

-          automatic transformation of final results into the STS standard format designed by Eurostat;

-          data transmission to Eurostat.

As concerning the logical test in total 44 logical tests were performed for data checking and correlation on all the indicators collected through the survey. Since the same tests were conducted at local level (unit and county) as well as at central level, the largest part of the errors found was solved from the beginning (at local level). The figures were corrected after re-contacting the corresponding enterprises by the statistical offices.

The questionnaire design, detailed explanatory notes and the IT solution developed had as result a complete and of good quality data set.

The non-negligible measurement for the number of employees indicators concerns mainly the evolution from one month to another, input errors, methodological errors, errors regarding the correlation between the average number of employees and the gross amounts paid or between the average number of employees and hours worked.

The information below was an estimation of errors at central level, after the data files were received from all over the country. Statistics on the first level of checking (local level) are not available. If the figures correspond to reality due to unusual phenomena, figures were accepted as such and no correction was made.

Most frequent errors that occurred during data checking period:

- Error coded AT4: if the increase/decrease growth of the number of employees at the end of the month/number of employees at the end of the month (with suspended labour contract/agreement)/average number of employees is higher than 10% an explanation must be written;

- Error coded AT3: the number of employees at the end of the month must be higher than the number of employees at the end of the month (with suspended labour contract/agreement);

- Error coded AT22: if the gross amounts are filled in then the average number of employees must be different than 0;

- Error coded AT50: if the number of employees at the end of the month (with suspended labour contract/agreement) is greater than 5 then the difference between the number of employees at the end of the month and the number of employees at the end of the month (with suspended labour contract/agreement) must be different than the average number of employees;

- Error coded AT51: the average number of employees must be equal or higher than the number of employees at the end of the month (with suspended labour contract/agreement);

- Error coded AT52: the difference between the number of employees at the end of the month and the number of employees at the end of the month (with suspended labour contract/agreement) must not be equal with 0;

- Error coded AT72: if the average number of employees is greater than 0 then the number of hours worked must be filled in (except when technical difficulties are the cause).

Estimates for non-response : Survey results are adjusted using the Horvitz-Thompson estimator, weighted with the response probability in order to compensate the non-responses.

Estimates for grossing-up to population levels : The results are grossed up using Horvitz-Thompson estimator.

Type of index : Data are provided in absolute figures to Eurostat and in thousands in the national publications.

Method of weighting and chaining : Survey results are adjusted using the Horvitz-Thompson estimator, weighted with the response probability in order to compensate the non-responses.

Planned changes in production methods : None.

WDA, SA and other calculations

No season adjustments are carried out.

No other comments.