Federal Statistical Office of Germany (DESTATIS)

E 21 "Business indices, seasonal adjustment"

Statistisches Bundesamt
Gustav-Stresemann-Ring 11
D-65180 Wiesbaden

This indicator is part of the overall STS indicator system which supports business cycle observation. This Hours worked index shows the evolution of total hours actually worked (volume) in construction activities.

Data are compiled at the 4-digit level of NACE Rev. 2 and are calculated for NACE Rev. 2 Sections. Regional figures are published by the regional Statistical Offices (statistical offices of the Länder) at a more aggregated level.

NACE Rev. 2 (Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community)

NACE Rev. 2 Section F

The objective of the hours worked index is to show the development in the volume of work done. The total number of hours worked represents the aggregate number of hours actually worked for the output of the observation unit during the reference period. They exclude hours worked by persons employed by other units to assemble or repair capital assets. Furthermore, excluded are hours paid but not actually worked such as for annual leave, holidays and sickness leave. It also excludes meal breaks and commuting between home and work. Included are hours actually worked during normal working hours; hours worked in addition to those (overtime and hours worked at night and on Sundays and public holidays); time which is spent at the place of work on tasks such as preparing the site and time corresponding to short periods of rest at the work place. 

In NACE rev. 2 Section F the survey is based on a census of enterprises with 20 or more employees (cut-off threshold) and the questionnaire asks for hours worked on construction sites by manual workers. Hours worked by homeworkers and hours spent on non-manual work (for example hours worked in an office) are excluded. The hours worked by family members are included, if they exceed 55 hours per month. Working Proprietors are included, but are not relevant in this sample.

Reporting unit: Local unit

Observation unit: Local kind-of-activity unit

All relevant statistical units in NACE Section F "construction" according to the Business Register: ~390,000 legal units (2017)

Country as a whole

Labour input outside the geographical territory of Germany is not included in the data.

Since 1995

2015 = 100

Index based on the evolution of hours worked in manual labour on construction sites

Calendar quarter

The laws regulating the collection, treatment and dissemination of statistical data are the Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 of 19 May 1998 concerning short-term statistics with implementing acts (e.g. Commission Regulation No 1503/2006 of 28 September 2006 concerning the definitions) as well as the Federal Statistics Act (1987) and the national Manufacturing Industry Statistics Act (ProdGewStatG of 2002) with several amendments.

The results are compiled in close cooperation with the statistical offices of the federal states (Bundesländer).

Data sent to Eurostat may contain confidential data to compile the European aggregate.

Confidentiality is guaranteed by section 16 of the Federal Statistics Act. It requires that respondents must be informed about their rights and obligations in providing statistical information. This rule is strictly followed. It also applies to the notification that individual data are only used for statistical purposes and - subject to protection procedures - for scientific purposes.

Furthermore, Chapter V “Statistical Confidentiality” of the REGULATION (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council applies.

As regards the confidentiality of data, methods of primary and secondary confidentiality checking have been developed and are being used. For business and agriculture surveys, disclosure risk assessment is based on concentration-rules. Cell suppression is used to prevent residual disclosure in tables for dissemination.

A continuously updated release calendar containing the precise release dates for the reference periods of the following year is published on the website of the FSO always in october.

https://www.destatis.de/SiteGlobals/Forms/Suche/Termine/EN/Terminsuche_Formular.html?nn=43216

The national publication is split in diffferent aggregates that are published at different dates. The German Central Bank has prior access to the data.

Data are transmitted quarterly to Eurostat approximately 2 months after the end of the reference quarter. 

Quarterly

Regular news release

Annually in the German Statistical Yearbook and monthly in "Ausgewählte Zahlen für die Bauwirtschaft"

Not avialable

Scientists have the possibility to get regulated access to official statistical micro data via Research Data Centres (FDZ).

The data are sent to Eurostat be released also as national data.

Several papers are available in German language under the following URL:

https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Economic-Sectors-Enterprises/Construction/_node.html

The national quality report is published in German language under the following URL:

https://www.destatis.de/DE/Methoden/Qualitaet/Qualitaetsberichte/Bauen/einfuehrung.html

The data of German official statistics enjoy a reputation of high reliability in Germany and abroad. The FSO has committed itself to assure and further enhance the level of quality already attained. In order to achieve this task – also in the ESS – the activities of the FSO are based on quality guidelines. To assure quality in the long term, the FSO applies a variety of systematic quality assurance measures, among others the European Statistics Code of Practice.

Detailed descriptions can be found here:

https://www.destatis.de/EN/Methods/Quality/_node.html

The monthly survey in the construction sector is conducted in a decentralized manner. The statistical offices of the Länder are responsible for collecting, checking and processing the respective Länder data. The Federal Statistical Office is entrusted with methodological preparations and the development of the statistics, and it collects the Länder results in order to produce and publish federal results as well as to calculate indices.

Main users are Eurostat and business associations in the construction industry. Furthermore, it is an important input for the continuation of the Index of Production in Construction (IPC).

The FSO conducts user satisfaction surveys in various sectors of statistics. The Statistical Advisory Committee (Statistischer Beirat) represents the interests of the users of federal statistics and regularly consults with the FSO.

Additionally, user satisfaction is measured by the number of monthly visits on specialized publications on the website of the FSO and the respective number of printed products sold or downloads, quarterly downloads from the on-line database “GENESIS”, downloads of the Statistical Yearbook sorted by chapters and the number of external queries via the costumer management system.

STS requirements according to EU regulations and national laws are fulfilled.

Deviations between the preliminary and the final results are marginal.

Not relevant since surveys are conducted with a census above a cut-off threshold.

Unit-non-repsonse has no impact on the quality because the response rate is close to 100% and an estimation procedure compensates the remaining non-response.

The first preliminary results for hours worked are published approximately 60 days after the end of the reference period.

Data are to be delivered by the reporting units up to the 10th day after the end of the reference period.

All publication deadlines are met.

Results for federal states (Bundesländer = NUTS 1) are directly comparable to each other.

Consistent time series are available since 2005.

Coherence with National Accounts is only partly given (because of different data collection and estimation methods).

Internal coherence is given (sub-aggregates add up to the main aggregate).

DESTATIS estimates the hours used by DESTATIS for this indicator as 30 person hours per month.

The general revision policy of the Federal Statistical Office is published under the following URL:

https://www.destatis.de/EN/Methods/Quality/GeneralRevisionsPolicy.html

This policy applies to national publications and data sent to Eurostat.

At the first publication all results are considered provisional. With every publication two former results are revised, but still considered provisional. Results are considered final with the third revision 11 months after the reference period.

The national publication is split in diffferent aggregates that are published at different dates. The national results are considered final after the second revision.

The hours worked in manual labour on construction sites are obtained for local-kind-of-activity units based on a primary survey of all enterprises in NACE Section F with 20 or more persons employed.

Monthly in the main construction activity and quarterly in the building completion and installation activity

The data collection is done by Internet questionnaires (IDEV), which are sent and collected by the statistical offices of the federal states (Statistische Ämter der Länder).

The validation (plausibility checks) is done by the statistical offices of the Länder with a standardised It-Programme.

Estimates for non-response are based on reported values of the preceding period.

Calender (working-day) adjustment using the BV4 method

None