Central Statistics Office of Ireland

(i) Short Term Statistics – Data Collection Unit and (ii) Earnings Analysis

Central Statistics Office, Skehard Road, Cork, Republic of Ireland

The Earnings, Hours and Employment Costs Survey (EHECS) is a quarterly survey that collects comprehensive data on earnings, employment, hours worked, job vacancies and job turnover. The survey results meet the requirements for labour costs statistics set out in Council Regulation (EC) No. 530/1999 and is also used to meet the requirements for data on job vacancies, the Labour Cost Index (LCI) and certain STS data (i.e. Employment, Hours Worked and Wages & Salaries).

The series and all estimates deriving from the EHECS are primarily of use as an indicator of trends in average earnings and paid hours of employees across different economic sectors. The main results from the EHECS are the average weekly earnings, average hourly earnings, average weekly paid hours, average hourly total labour costs and job vacancies data. EHECS is also the basis for the calcuation of the total cost of producing labour on a quarterly and annual basis and is an important input for the National Accounts value of Compensation of Employees.

The results are used to measure the competitiveness of the Irish Labour Market; to enable comparisons to be made with other EU member states, across economic sectors and between the public and private sectors and to monitor changes within economic sectors.

The EHECS replaced both the four-yearly Labour Costs Survey (LCS) and all other short-term earnings inquiries conducted by the CSO from Q1 2008 (Quarterly Industrial Inquiry (QII), Quarterly Services Inquiry (QSI), Quarterly Earnings and Hours worked in Construction (QEC)).

Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, Rev. 2 (2008) (i.e. NACE Rev. 2).  

Activity Coverage: NACE sections B to S

Size Coverage: All enterprises with 3 or more employees

Variable definitions are given in the EHECS instruction leaflet that is provided to surveyed enterprises in conjunction with the paper questionnaire and relate to the below statistical definitions.

Number of employees and self-employed persons

The number of employees is defined as those persons who work for an employer and who have a contract of employment and receive compensation in the form of wages, salaries, fees, gratuities, piecework pay or remuneration in kind.

Hours worked by employees

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

Wages and salaries

Wages and salaries are defined as the total remuneration, in cash or in kind, payable to all persons counted on the payroll (including home workers), in return for work done during the accounting period, regardless of whether it is paid on the basis of working time, output or piecework and whether it is paid regularly.

Individual enterprises in NACE sections B to S with 3 or more employees are the reporting and observation unit.

The target population is approximately 76,500 enterprises employing approximately 2.1 million employees.

The sample is selected each quarter to ensure that it is representative of the population of enterprises in the country. The sampling strata are defined by NACE divisions (i.e. 2-digit level) and employment size class. The sample consists of (i) census of all enterprises with 50+ employees and (ii) a random sample of enterprises with 3 to 49 employees. The employment size classes are (a) 3 to 9 (b) 10 to 19 and (c) 20 to 49 employees. The proportions by size class for all sectors are shown in the table below.

The sample is approximately 7,800 enterprises which represent around 9.3% of all enterprises and accounts for 62.5% of all employees across NACE sectors B to S in 2022.

The geographical area covered is the Republic of Ireland. Activities outside the geographical area are not included.

STS Labour data has been available from the EHECS survey since Q1 2008, prior to which data was provided from 4 separate short term sectoral surveys.

The base period for the STS Labour Indices (i.e. Employment, Hours Worked and Wages & Salaries) is 2015.

STS labour market indicators (Employment, Hours Worked and Wages & Salaries) are provided to Eurostat as indices.

The data that is published nationally are absolute figures, with quarterly and annual growth rates in percentage.

The quarterly data refers to the whole calendar quarter.

National: The data is collected by the CSO under the Statutory Instrument S.I. No 115 of 2018 Statistics (Labour Costs Survey) Order 2018 and Statutory Instrument S.I. No 113 of 2023 Statistics (Labour Costs Survey) Order 2023.

European: The results of the EHECS meet the requirements for Labour Costs statistics set out in Council Regulation (EC) No. 530/1999 concerning structural statistics on earnings and on labour costs and in compliance with EBS Regulation (EU) No 2019/2152.

Section 34 of the 1993 Statistics Act states:

The office may provide, for statistical purposes only, information obtained in any way under this Act or the repealed enactments, in such form that it cannot be directly or indirectly related to an identifiable person or undertaking, to such persons, and subject to such charges, conditions and restrictions as the Director General may determine.

Data are transmitted to Eurostat only in accordance with EU regulations.

The data collected is treated as strictly confidential in accordance with the Statistics Act, 1993. The provision on statistical confidential ity is regulated by Sections 32 and 33 of the 1993 Statistics Act.

The CSO cannot disseminate, or make available in any way, individual or aggregate data that could lead to the identification of any individual person or entity.

The following confidentiality rules are followed for published data:

1. If an enterprise has 80% or more of the total employment in a division (i.e. 2-digit level) or section (i.e.1-digit level) then the cell is suppressed.
2. If two enterprises have 90% or more of the total employment in a division or section then the cell is suppressed.
3. There must be a minimum of 2,000 employees in a division or section otherwise the cell is suppressed.

A confidential cell that is suppressed (as described above) is aggregated with other confidential and/or non-confidential cells to produce a non-confidential aggregate that can be published.

A rolling annual release calendar, showing proposed release dates, is publically available on the CSO website.

The annual release calendar is available to the public and can be accessed on the CSO website.

The CSO disseminates the Earnings and Labour Costs publication on the CSO website at 11am (local time) on the day of publication.

Data are transmitted to Eurostat within the agreed time frame based on Eurostat’s publication schedule.

The national publications are disseminated quarterly and annually.

Data are transmitted to Eurostat quarterly based on STS regulation and Eurostat’s schedule.

Ireland does not publish STS labour market indices nationally. National users rely on the Earnings and Labour Costs quarterly release for data on earnings, hours, employment and labour costs.  Ireland supplies STS labour market data to Eurustat for inlusion in Eurostat STS related news releases via the Eurostat website.

Data are published in the (i) Earnings and Labour Costs - Quarterly publication and (ii) Earnings and Labour Costs - Annual publication on the CSO website which is based on annualised data across the four quarters of the EHECS. 

https://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/earnings/

Ireland does not publish STS labour market indices nationally. National users rely on the Earnings and Labour Costs quarterly release for data on earnings, hours, employment and labour costs.  Ireland supplies STS labour market data to Eurustat for inlusion in Eurostat STS related news releases via the Eurostat website.

Data are published in the (i) Earnings and Labour Costs - Quarterly publication and (ii) Earnings and Labour Costs - Annual publication on the CSO website which is based on annualised data across the four quarters of the EHECS. 

Data that is published in the Earnings and Labour Costs - Quarterly and Earnings and Labour Costs - Annual publications are also made available simultaneously on PXStat (CSO Main Data Dissemination Service).

https://data.cso.ie/table/EHQ03 

Access to Research Microdata File of EHECS data can be provided to approved applicants for the purpose of statistical analysis.

The CSO RMF policies and procedures are available on the CSO website.  

Data are sent to Eurostat electronically.

Information on methodology is available within the (i) Earnings and Labour Costs – Quarterly and (ii) Earnings and Labour Costs - Annual publications (see Background Notes section of publication). A quality report is prepared annually.

The quality report for the EHECS is updated annually on the CSO website and outlines the quality procedures and practices in place. 

The survey managers of EHECS assess the quality of the survey on an on-going basis and make improvements if and when necessary. The CSO has an internal quality audit team. The production and publication processes for the EHECS were reviewed using a Lean Six Sigma (LSS) approach in 2011 to improve (i) process clarity (ii) efficiency in the data collection process and (iii) timeliness. The EHECS was reviewed again in 2014 using a LSS approach. Upon transmission to Eurostat, LCS data from the Member States are checked for completeness and consistency.

In addition to this the EHECS data collection and reporting teams have implemented the Quality Management Framework, which is an office wide initiative to standardise the the quality procudes in the CSO.

The goal of the Quality Management Framework (QMF) in the CSO is to meet the required standard as set out in the European Statistical System Code of Practice (ESCOP). The QMF foundations are based on establishing the UNECE’s Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM) as the operating statistical production model in the CSO.

The QMSA team have been working on the implementation phase of the QMF since mid- 2016 where they have systematically rolled out the new policies and standards in the form of the quality projects detailed below. The EHECS survey implemented changes required to adhere to the QMF.

• The establishment of the GSBPM as the business process model for the Office. This model is an UNECE standard for statistical production and allows the CSO to advance a more standardised, horizontal approach to quality management. 

• Survey documentation – the improving the level of quality and standardisation of survey documentation across the Office. 

• Process Mapping project – Process mapping is the visual display of steps involved in a business process. It draws a concise picture of the sequence of tasks needed to bring a product or service from start to completion. The main purpose behind business process mapping is to provide clarity on exactly how the process happens, not how it is supposed to happen. 

• Process maintenance project – In order to keep the maps up to date, the process map maintenance policy has been developed which requires business areas to certify that their maps are valid and up to date once a year. 

• Process Metrics and Indicators – In order for staff to make an assessment on how their processes are performing and to better manage the phases of the statistical lifecycle (collection, processing, analysing and the ultimate dissemination of statistical data) appropriate metrics are identified and collected at each phase of the statistical process. These metrics and indicators include response rates, timeliness, edit and imputation rates, precision rates and the degree of revisions. 

• The QMF metadata project designed to establish the standards, based on international best practice, for all relevant parts of the survey life cycle. 

• Quality Review System – This is a self-assessment tool which allows survey owners to review the quality of their statistical processes against the principles of the ESCOP for each phase of the GSBPM they are using.

• Data Management and governance support tools – These include data owners attesting to which data they own and are responsible for, where this data is located and who can access this data. 

The quality of statistics is assessed according to the five quality criteria: relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, coherence and comparability. Based upon the methodology that is in place and following the documented processes, the EHECS produces high-quality, timely and coherent output that is easily accessible and which meets the needs of its users and the legislative requirements.

A Quality Report: Standard Report on Methods and Quality for Earnings and Labour Costs is updated annually and is available on the CSO website.

The main national users include Government Departments, the National Accounts team in the CSO, Central Bank of Ireland (CBI), Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), universities, Trade Unions and employer’s associations. Private companies use EHECS data for pricing contracts and may use the data for wage agreements and competitiveness analysis.

The main international users include the European Central Bank (ECB), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations (UN).

There is regular contact with the main users of the data. The range of data disseminated has broadened as a result of requests from users including (i) average weekly earnings, average hourly earnings and average weekly paid hours are now published at the more detailed NACE division (i.e. 2-digit level) on Statbank and (ii) the introduction of the Earnings and Labour Costs - Annual publication.   

The EHECS covers enterprises in NACE sections B to S with 3 or more employees. Vocational training costs and other expenditure such as recruitment costs and spending on working clothes are not captured as they only account for 0.5% of labour costs. Paid hours not worked (e.g. annual leave, bank holidays, paid sick leave) are not captured separately by the survey. They are included in the contracted hours variable.

The survey information is collected by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) under the S.I. No 115 of 2018 Statistics (Labour Costs Surveys) Order 2018 and and Statutory Instrument S.I. No 113 of 2023 Statistics (Labour Costs Survey) Order 2023. 

A detailed review of preliminary estimates and final data was undertaken to ascertain the extent of change between both sets of results. The review focused on response rates, scale of revision at NACE section level and significant changes in trends. Analysis of the results for individual NACE sections highlighted that the change from preliminary to final data was broadly in the range of +/- 5%.

The design of the sample attempts to minimize sampling errors and the various processes of the survey are intended to eliminate or reduce as far as possible the errors both in the collection phase and in editing, weighting and imputation stages.

Sampling methodology

A census of all enterprises with 50 or more employees is undertaken each quarter.  A stratified sample by NACE 2-digit sector and size of enterprise classifications is used for enterprises with less than 50 employees.

Labour costs are statistical estimates that are subject to sampling errors because they are based on a sample of enterprises with 3 to 49 employees (in conjunction with a census of enterprises with 50+ employees) which are not the complete universe of all enterprises. In addition, individual enterprises in NACE sections B to S with less than 3 employees are not included in the sample. The CSO tries to reduce sampling errors by using a sample of enterprises that is as large as possible while taking burden on enterprises and time and resource constraints into account.

Coefficients of variation are calculated each quarter to measure variability in each indicator and Nace classification. This highlights any sampling error that may arise and identifies where further quality assessment needs to be focused.

Frame errors:

All enterprises are allocated to a NACE according to the NACE recorded on the CSO’s Central Business Register (CBR) and this is assumed to be correct.

All known active enterprises with 3 or more employees are included in the sampling frame so no non-sampling errors outside the minor non-coverage within the CSO’s CBR are known to exist for enterprises in that size class. Enterprises with less than 3 employees were not sampled and are therefore not reflected in the results.

The CSO’s CBR is updated on an ongoing basis to ensure continuing relevance. However, there can be a time lag in updated information being reflected on the CSO’s CBR. As such there can be limited under coverage where new births of enterprises are not reflected for some time and also over coverage where closures are not immediately reflected. If such ceased enterprises are included in the quarterly sample and found to be ceased the CSO’s CBR is updated accordingly. The exact level of over and under coverage cannot be estimated.

Measurement and processing errors:

As the vast majority of the data is sourced from payroll information differences between actual values and those collected by the survey is assumed to be small. The jobs vacancies data is sourced from the enterprises Human Resources (HR) Department.

For both the scanned and electronically submitted data an extensive range of edit checks were undertaken and respondent enterprises were contacted with follow up queries to identify corrections to the data (see point 20.4 Data Validation).

Non-response errors:

Non-respondent enterprises are followed up by postal and e-mail reminders or by telephone to improve response rates each quarter. On average, the response level is approximately 63% of sampled enterprises each quarter and respondents covered approximately 87% of the estimated total number of employees for each NACE section in 2013.

Item non-response is not an issue as only fully completed questionnaires are used in analysis.

Model assumption errors:

The data model is designed to produce consistent and comparable data between quarters.

Trends in earnings can be affected by the composition of employees in a given section, and characteristics such as length of service, educational attainment and nature of work should be taken into account but none of these variables are available from the EHECS.

Provisional Results: The preliminary data are published by the CSO within T+60 days after the end of the reference quarter in a standard year. 

Final Results: The final data are published by the CSO within T + 115 days after the end of the reference quarter (i.e. the final results are published at the same time as the provisional results for the subsequent quarter).

Data are transmitted to Eurostat within the agreed time frame based on Eurostat’s publication schedule (T+60 days for Employment, T+90 Hours and Wages and Salaries)

The EHECS publication has always been published nationally on the pre-announced release dates.

The data for 2022 was transmitted to Eurostat within the agreed time frame.

The definitions of the STS Labour Indicators are based upon the definition laid out in the labour cost survey regulation. These definitions were utilised in the set up of the EHECS survey, thus are comparable with other member states implemented the EU regulations concerning the STS Labour indicators. 

Data are comparable over time.

The EHECS was established in 2008 to collect short-term earnings, hours and employment costs statistics for sectors B to S. It is not directly comparable with other discontinued short-term earnings inquiries conducted by the CSO prior to 2008 such as the Quarterly Industrial Inquiry (QII), Quarterly Services Inquiry (QSI) and the Quarterly Earnings and Hours worked in Construction (QEC).

The main differences are:

The EHECS collects data on the entire reference quarter, the first and last day of the quarter, while the QII, QSI and QEC only collected data for a reference week in the quarter.
Data on earnings and labour costs per hour is generally presented on the basis of hours paid and worked in the EHECS. Data on earnings per hour was presented on the basis of hours paid (including paid leave) in the QII.
The EHECS uses a standardised form for all NACE sectors with a standard occupational classification for all enterprises while the QII, QSI and QEC surveys had their own occupational classifications. However the EHECS category “Production, Craft and other Manual workers” corresponds broadly to the “Industrial” category in the QII; the EHECS category “Clerical, Sales and Service Workers” also corresponds broadly to the QII category “Clerical and other office staff”; the QII category “Managerial and technical staff” is largely equivalent to the EHECS category “Managers, Professional and Associated Professionals”.
The EHECS collects data for enterprises while the QII collected data for local units.
Data on hours is collected for all categories of employees in the EHECS, while such data was limited to the industrial workers in the QII, non-managerial employees in the QEC and not collected at all in the QSI.
The earnings data collected for the EHECS includes irregular earnings, irregular bonuses etc. while these items were excluded from the QII, QSI and QEC which only collected data on regular earnings (including regular bonuses) and overtime.
Non-labour costs such as employers PRSI, other social costs, benefit in kind etc., are collected for the EHECS but were not collected for the QII, QSI and QEC surveys.

Results are compared to other sources, including PAYE data from the Revenue Commissioners. Public sector employment is validated by data from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Any differences are researched and explained before the results are finalised. 

Data is tested for coherence at individual enterprise level each quarter and inconsistencies are followed up with respondents. Additionally, specific coherence edits are used for respondent enterprises with 250+ employees by comparing data with the corresponding data from the previous quarter.

Earnings, and employment data from the EHECS survey are systematically checked for coherence with other internal sources such as the Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources (EAADS) and the Structure of Earnings Survey.

In order to reduce the burden on enterprises a review of the EHECS was carried out in 2009. As a result a number of methodological changes were introduced which included reducing the content and complexity of the original questionnaire, introducing a shorter questionnaire for small enterprises and promoting and supporting the EHECS Payroll Project which provides an electronic facility to enable enterprises to extract the required survey data directly from their payroll systems.

In 2013, an annualised estimate of the time burden on respondents - based on the total number of returned forms - was calculated to be 7800 hours. 

Provisional data is revised with final data in the subsequent quarter.

The percentage change from preliminary to final data for each indicator and NACE category is published in each EHECS release.

Final data is subject to revision in the unusual circumstance of a revision to an input source, error being identified or process improvements implementation.

As is the usual practice with short-term data, provisional data is published initially, followed subsequently, at the release of the next quarter’s data, by final data.  For each quarter there will be the current quarter’s provisional data and the previous quarter’s final data.  Thus, there will be a revision to the previous quarter of STS data each quarter when the current quarter’s STS data is being sent to Eurostat. Differences between provisional and final data are usually minor.

STS data sent to Eurostat is seasonally adjusted. The seasonal adjustment specifications for each indicator are updated annually. This update can lead to revisions in historic time series extending back throughout the entire time series. 

Notice about major changes or revisions (e.g. in classification, methodology or base year) are provided in advance of the change. Notice about minor changes or revisions are given at the time the change is introduced. Major revisions can apply to any point in the series. A recorded is kept in SAS datasets of the old data that has been revised. Minor revision or minor errors that arise are revised for the preceding four quarters.

Each quarter preliminary STS estimates are produced for the most recent quarter. Preliminary STS estimates for the previous quarter are replaced with final estimate. Both are transmitted to Eurostat.

The percentage change from preliminary to final data for each indicator and NACE category is published in each EHECS release.

Final data is subject to revision in the unusual circumstance of a revision to an input source, error being identified or process improvements implementation.

A detailed review of preliminary estimates and final data is undertaken to ascertain the extent of change between both sets of results. The review focuses on response rates, scale of revision at NACE two-digit and one-digit level and significant changes in trends. Analysis of the results for individual NACE sections highlighted that the change from preliminary to final data is broadly in the range of +/- 2%.

STS Labour Indicators are based on data generated by the Earnings, Hours and Employment Costs Survey (EHECS) quarterly survey.  It covers enterprises across NACE (Rev2) sectors B-S with 3 or more employees.  Both full-time and part-time employees are covered.  All enterprises with 50 or more employees and a sample of those with 3 to 49 employees are surveyed each quarter. The sample is based on the proportion of companies in each NACE 2 digit economic sectors in the 3 to 49 size classes (3 to 9, 10 to 19 and 20 to 49).  The sample is taken in the first week of the last month of the quarter.   It is updated with the most current information from the previous quarters EHECS return.  

Data is collected at quarterly intervals.

EHECS consists of two questionnaires (Form A and B) which can be returned in paper format or by electronic payroll software system of data collection (.xml returns). The form A questionnaire is issued to all enterprises with registered employment of 100 or more persons. The form B questionnaire is a summarized version of the form and is issued to enterprises with less than 100 persons employees. XML questionnaires have the same format as the form A and are processed via the enterprise’s payroll software system. The return of XML questionnaires is independent of the class size that an enterprise belongs to - the only requisite is that the enterprise avails of the CSO functionality in their payroll software.

The percentage breakdown of issued forms by type is:

[Data refers to Quarter 4 2022]

Extensive edit rules are applied to check unit level data each quarter to check that all data falls within a reasonable range. Additional checks are applied for all enterprises with 250+ employees by comparing the data for the current quarter against the corresponding data from previous quarters. Enterprises are contacted regarding incompleteness and apparent inconsistencies in the data if necessary.

 The main checks that are performed on the data include:

1. Check that all relevant variables are filled in correctly

(i) Employment is present both at the beginning and the end of the quarter

(ii) Both wages and hours variables are present (regular/overtime)

(iii) Both wages and Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) variables are present

2. Check that the hourly rate of wage (regular/irregular/overtime) falls within a reasonable range for the section

3. Check that the average number of hours worked per week (full time/part time/apprentices) fall within a reasonable range for the section

4. Check that the received figures tally up (e.g. the PRSI value provided is within correct parameters for the wages and salaries indicated)

5. Check that the benefit in kind and pension figures provided are within a reasonable range

6. Ensure that the hired and vacancies rates received are correct.

Response rates and coefficient of variation (CV) estimates are compiled and analysed each quarter. Coherence checks are undertaken on individual enterprises across quarters. Matched sample analysis is undertaken to determine the effects of sample changes each quarter. Time-series analysis across NACE divisions is used to study quarter changes within broader longer-term trends in labour costs.

In the production of the STS indices to be transmitted to Eurostat, documentation and guidelines are followed in the preparation of the transmission to file to ensure the correct file formats and codes are used. This is double checked by another member of staff to ensure accuracy. Each year a full review of the codes and indicators, (e.g. confidentiality marker) is undertaken to ensure suitability.

Prior to transmission to Eurostat, STS indices are compared to actual value series that are published nationally to ensure consistency of movement in the trends.

Weighting:

For enterprises with 3 to 49 employees inclusive, a weighting factor (the reciprocal of the sampling fraction) is used to weight the estimates to the total population for both employees and enterprises. The CSO’s CBR forms the basis of the sampling frame used for weighting the sample data to the population.

Estimates for non-response:

Imputation is undertaken for non-respondent enterprises with 50+ employees. Where an enterprise responded in any of the previous four quarters ratio-imputation is used to estimate values for the current quarter; replacing any missing value with the proportional change in that variable based on all other respondents in the quarter. Otherwise a stratum average (mean) imputation method is used to estimate the missing values replacing any missing value with the mean of that variable for all other respondents in the stratum in the quarter. Both the ratio-imputation and stratum average (mean) imputation methods are based on respondent enterprises of a similar size and activity.

Final Estimates:

After imputation, all enterprises with 50+ employees are accounted for and included in the final dataset. For those cells where a sample survey of enterprises is used (i.e. enterprises with 3 to 49 employees), the results are expanded using the grossing factors to cover the entire population for the relevant NACE sections in the quarter. Macro edits are carried out at this stage and any outliers are investigated and corrected. Coherence of data is ensured by scrutinising quarter on quarter changes.

Calendar adjustment is carried out on wages & salaries and hours, using JDemetra+. 

None