Statbel (Statistics Belgium) 

Economy unit

North Gate, Boulevard du Roi Albert II, 16 1000 Bruxelles

• Number of employees and self-employed persons

Nombre de salariés/nombre de personnes occupées

Aantal werknemers/aantal werkzame personen

Arbeitnehmer/Beschäftigte

• Hours worked by employees

Heures travaillées

Gewerkte uren

geleisteten Arbeitsstunden

• Gross wages and salaries

Masse salariale

Loonmassa

Gesamtlohnsumme

These indexes are designed to be indicators of the economic cycle.

The source of data are the administrative data from the NSSO (National Social Security Office).

For the number of persons employed, the administrative data from the NISSE (National Institute for the social security of the self-employed) are also used.

NACE Rev. 2. classification (Statistical Classification of Economic Activities) is used.

INDUSTRY :

• sections B to E of Nace Rev.2 (except : E37, E38 and E39)
• MIGS
• B_TO_E36
• divisions of Nace Rev.2 : B to E36

CONSTRUCTION :

• section F of Nace Rev.2

RETAIL TRADE :

• sections G, G45, G46, G47 of Nace Rev.2
• division G47, except Group 47.3 (G47XG473)

OTHER SERVICES :

• aggregate of Nace sections H+I+J+L+M (except: M701, M72 and M75) + N
• sections of Nace Rev.2: H, I, J, L, M (except: M701, M72 and M75) and N
• divisions of Nace Rev.2: H, I and J 

All size classes are included (no breakdown on size classes) and there are no cut-off.

Number of employees and self-employed persons, hours worked by employees and gross wages and salaries are based on the NSSO data.

The largest category of individuals reported to the NSSO as employees are those working according to the terms of a work contract. This is a contract that binds an individual to carry out services under the authority of another individual.

For certain jobs or capacities, regulations have removed the doubts. It has been legally defined that certain persons always act in the capacity of an employee, even though for some of them there may not be a work contract (pharmacists, fellowship holders, transporters of goods,...).

Certain individuals are employees, but their employer need not report them to the NSSO due to the limited nature of their services.

The Belgian social security system does not apply only to Belgians working in Belgium. It may also apply to foreigners working in Belgium, Belgians working abroad and sometimes to foreigners working abroad.

Measured number of employees is the number of employees subject to NSSO (full time and per time) and the number of self-employed persons no subject to NSSO working during the reference period.

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. However, for administrative simplification reasons, hours worked are approximated by paid hours.

The objective of the wages and salaries index is to approximate the development of the wage and salaries bill. Wages and salaries include all sums in cash and benefits in kind paid to persons counted among the employees.

reporting unit : legal unit or self-employed person

observation unit : legal unit or self-employed person

enterprises subject to NSSO and self-employees to NISSE

In the fourth quarter of 2022 (version Q+7), there were 232938 legal units in the NSSO. 

All of the regions of Belgium are covered.

The Belgian social security system does not apply only to Belgians working in Belgium. It may also apply to foreigners working in Belgium, Belgians working abroad and sometimes to foreigners working abroad.

The administrative data of NSSO and NISSE are use for the first time in 2008.

Series were recalculated based on these administrative data from 2000.

Reference year : 2015

• index based on number of persons
• index based on hours
• index based on euros

The calendar quarter is the reference period

The legal basis for this indicator is the European Business Statistics (EBS) Regulation:

• Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics (EBS-Regulation)
• Commission Implementing Regulation 2020/1197 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistic (General Implementing Act)

Belgium applies for this indicator the transitional arrangements set in the Annex VII (3.a) of the General Implementing Act EBS, which means that the requirements of the STS R - Council Regulation No 1165/98 and its amendments (The EU Council Regulation 1165/98 concerning short-term statistics, amended by the Regulation 1158/2005, and Regulation 1893/2006 establishing the statistical classification of economic activities Nace Rev.2) will continue to apply until the reference period Q4 2023.

Data are sent to Eurostat.

There is a national law concerning the confidentiality of data (statistical law of July 4, 1962): data from reporting units which are individual or which can result in individual data may not be disseminated without permission of the reporting unit. In practice this means indices are not disseminated for sectors where:
— there are only one or two reporting units;
— there are three reporting units but one of them represents 70% or more;

Confidential indices are sent to Eurostat flagged as confidential data.

For the indices of number of employees and self-employed persons, number of hours worked by employees, gross wages and salaries for breakdown defined in point 3.3, there is no problem of confidentiality.

Confidential data are treated by suppression.

Release dates are fixed in advance for a calendar year.

Direct link: https://statbel.fgov.be/en/calendar  

To access from the main page www.statbel.fgov.be: choose your language, click on 'release schedule' on the bottom right of the page.

Simultaneous release to all interested parties : Data are transmitted to Eurostat when they are published in Belgium

Identification of internal government access to data before release: The news are sent to the president of our ministery for information and to our general director 1 hour before publication

Transmission to Eurostat and further use of the statistics : Data are transmitted to Eurostat when they are published in Belgium. The transmission is done by use of edamis using SDMX. The level of detail corresponds to the 2-digit level of NACE Rev. 2, the totals and the MIG's

The data are transmitted quarterly to Eurostat and disseminated quarterly to national users.

There are news on these indicators available on Dutch, French, English and German versions.

In these news, the bruto indices for the highest aggregates for industry, construction, retail trade and repar, services for the reference quarter are compared with the same quarter of year before, for the employees and persons employed. For the indices of hours worked and the gross wages and salaries, seasonally adjusted indices are compared.

The latest version of these news are available on

Employees and persons employed : https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/indicators/labour/employees

Hours worked :https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/indicators/labour/hours-worked

Gross wages and salaries : https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/indicators/labour/gross-wages-and-salaries

There are no other publications.

The news are a web document and is accompagnied by an excel table containing :

• gross indexes
• working day adjusted indexes (except for number of employees and self-employed persons)
• trends (except for number of employees and self-employed persons)
• seasonnaly adjusted indexes (except for number of employees and self-employed persons)

for Belgium for Nace 2 digits, Nace 3 digits , MIG's, sections B, C, D, E and totals

Microdata are not disseminated.

Indices are transmitted to Eurostat to be used in calculating European aggregates and to be released as national data.

There is no available methodology document.

There is no available methodology document.

For each step of the production chains, the data are controlled. The stability of different revisions are tracked. If the rate of revision is important then we try to give an explanation.

Once the figures produced, they are validated by our internal validation service before publication.

checks carried out along the production chain of the indices and these are finally validated by our validation service before diffusion

Belgian national bank, Eurostat, Federations, Professional associations, Universities, Regional public services, Other users.

no measure of user satisfaction but we receive feedback of users by mail, phone...

all of the required series are available.

These indexes are based on administrative data.

There are 3 versions of the same data for a reference quarter available at Q+2M, Q+4M and Q+7M.

For the Q3-2018, version Q+4M represents 95% of version Q+7M.

Only for the index of the number of employees and self-employed persons the reference quarter is first calculated based on Q+2M data then recalculated on the Q+7M data.  

For the indices of hours worked by employees, gross wages and salaries the reference quarter is calculated based on more complete data Q+4M then recalculated on the Q+7M data. 

All indices are sent to Eurostat and published on our website.

not relevant

Errors can come from the fact that the data Q+2M and Q+4M are less complete then data Q+7M. 

The rates of revision between the calculations based on 2 versions of the data are generally rather low.

An other source of error can also come from errors in the attribution of the nace activities.

Errors are also detected in the old data before 2010.

The indexes are based on administrative data.

There are 3 versions of the same data for a reference quarter available at Q+2M, Q+4M and Q+7M.

The first index to calculate is the index of the number of employees and self-employed persons that must be released within 2 months for the fourth sectors: Industry, Construction, Retail trade and Services.

Generally, version Q+4M is available on time to provide official indexes for hours worked by employees, gross wages and salaries for all the asked sectors.

From this version Q+2M, official indexes for number of employees and self-employed persons are recalculated.

Data availability two months after the reference period and the computation time allow us to meet deadlines for the number of employees and self-employed persons.

no problem

no problem

No regular confrontation is made, but comparisons are made on an ad-hoc basis, especially when results seem contrary to expectations.

none

Burden on respondents

For these indices, we use administrative data.

Cost associated with the production of these indexes

1person for ~200 hours/year

The same revision policy is applied to the data released nationally and transmitted to Eurostat. The general belgian revision policy is available on our internet site following the link : https://statbel.fgov.be/en/about-statbel/quality/revision-policy or under the 'quality' tab after selecting 'About Statbel' at the top right of the home page (https://statbel.fgov.be).

For number of employees and self-employed persons: the indices for the five last quarters are recalculated based on Q+2M versions of the data for the reference quarter and based on Q+7M versions of the four last quarters.

For hours worked by employees, gross wages and salaries: the indices for the five last quarters are recalculated based on Q+4M versions of the data for the reference quarter and based on Q+7M versions of the four last quarters.

Indices of the five last quarters are considered as provisional. Other are definitive.

These indices are published on our website.

Moreover, if there are errors then series are recalculated.

For number of employees and self-employed persons: the indices for the five last quarters are recalculated based on Q+2M versions of the data for the reference quarter and based on Q+7M versions of the four last quarters.

For hours worked by employees, gross wages and salaries: the indices for the five last quarters are recalculated based on Q+4M versions of the data for the reference quarter and based on Q+7M versions of the four last quarters.

Indices of the five last quarters are considered as provisional. Other are definitive.

These indices are published on our website.

Moreover, if there are errors then series are recalculated.

All series since 2000 will be re-referenced in the new reference year 2015.

• Type of source : administrative sources
• Frame on which the source is based : not relevant
• Sample or census : assumed to be a census
• Criteria for stratification : not relevant
• Threshold values and percentages : not available
• Frequency of updating the sample : not relevant

Quarterly 

• Questionnaires used in the survey : none
• Planned changes in national questionnaires : none
• Data collection media : not relevant
• Planned changes in data collection methodology : none

Checks are carried out throughout the production chain indices. These are also validated by another service before distribution.

Administrative data are quarterly transferred from the NSSO in our datawarehouse. The presence of the different versions of the data and the presence of the data for the last quarter are checked.

The gross indexes are calculated for the different quarters sinds 2000.

For the previously calculated indices, the revision rates are analyzed. If these rates exceed 10%, we search the explanation in the data.

We compare indices of the last trimester to the indices of the previous trimester. 

Final tables and press releases are validated by our validation service : format, content, missing informations, layout of press release,...are verified.

If results appear abnormal, the validation service recontacts the responsible for verification.

• Estimates for non-response : non-response is estimated by comparing the quarter with the quarter before (taking into account bankruptcy)
• Estimates for grossing-up to population levels : not relevant
• Type of index : simple index (proportion to average of base year)
• Method of weighting and chaining : none
• Planned changes in production methods : none

• Number of employees and self-employed persons: all the series provided are unadjusted
• Hours worked by employees: unadjusted and calendar adjusted series using Tramo Seats of JDemetra+
• Gross wages and salaries : unadjusted and calendar adjusted series using Tramo Seats of JDemetra+

The following series are published in Belgium :

Industry : 08 - 33, 35, 36, B, C, D, E, B_TO_E36, MIG_CAG, MIG_COG, MIG_DCOG, MIG_ING, MIG_NDCG, MIG_NRG

Construction : F

Retail Trade : G, 45, 46, 47, G47X473

Services : 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, H, I, J, L, M_NOT_M701_M72_M75, N, HTNXK (=H+I+J+L+M_STS+N)

Not available.