Central Statistical Bureau (CSB)

Business Statistics Department, Wage Statistics Section

1 Lacplesa Street, Riga, LV-1301

Labour force survey.

The source of the indicators is the quarterly Survey of Labour 2-labour (Parskats par darbu 2-darbs),  administrative data, for industry, construction, trade and services STS, additionally, the Supplement to Survey of Labour 2-labour-supplement (Pārskata par darbu pielikums pa nozarēm '2-darbs-pielikums').

Number of employees and self employed persons:

— number of employees (separately full-time and part-time);

— employers (persons who operate their own enterprises and have one or more employees);

— self-employed (persons who operate their own enterprises without employees);

— unpaid family workers (persons who work without pay in an enterprise operated by a related person).

Hours worked by employees:

— hours actually worked (total by quarter).

Gross wages and salaries:

— calculated gross wages and salaries before taxes (by month);

— gross wages and salaries in kind (total by quarter);

— calculated payments to employees leaving the enterprise (total by quarter).

The data is used to study socio-economic processes in Latvia and Europe.

NACE Rev. 2.

The survey covers:

Industry: NACE Rev. 2. sections B, C, D and E36 at 2-digit level; Main Industrial Groupings.

Construction: section F of NACE Rev. 2.

Retail trade: division G, G45, G46, G47 of NACE Rev. 2.

Services: divisions Section H, I, J, L, M (except M701, M72, M75), N of NACE Rev. 2.

All enterprises whatever their size are covered.

Number of persons employed - the number of persons who are on the payroll of the enterprise (on long-term leave and persons performing urgent separate tasks of short-duration are excluded).

Employer (unpaid owner) - person who operate their own economic enterprises and have one or more employees.

Unpaid family worker - person who work without pay in an economic enterprise operated by a related person.

Hours actually worked - all hours actually worked including overtime hours, time spent on work preparation, cleaning tools and machines. Hours paid but not worked are excluded.

Calculated gross wages and salaries (before taxes) - wages and salaries include direct remuneration and bonuses (paid regularly or not regularly at each pay period). Gross wages and salaries in kind - goods and services made available by employer to employees. This item also includes allowances for travelling to and from work and for food. Calculated payments to employees leaving the enterprise (severance pay).

Full-time employment is from 35 to 40 hours per week.

Accounting conventions

For the number of employees the reference points are the end of the calendar quarter. For the number of employers the criteria is that they worked in the enterprise more than one day in the quarter.

For hours worked the data refers to flows during the calendar month. The reference period for hours worked is the month.

For wages and salaries the data refers to flows during the calendar month. The reference period for wages and salaries is the month.

Reporting unit - Enterprise.

Observation unit(s) - Enterprise(s), for industry, construction, trade and services STS, additionally - KAU(s).

All economically active enterprises and for industry, construction, trade and services STS, additionally - KAU(s).

Number of units in 2023 population frame: industry - 9125, construction - 8351, retail trade - 21178, services - 61537.

Geographical area covered - Latvia.

Outside activities is not included in the data.

Date of first use as a source

The first year in which the survey was carried out was 1998 except for the indicator "gross wages and salaries in kind" which started from 2001.

2021 = 100

Index

Quarter

Legal basis

The legal basis for the European short-term business statistics indicators is Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics (Text with EEA relevance) and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 of 30 July 2020 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 statistics (Text with EEA relevance).

Obligation on units to provide data

The enterprises are under a legal obligation (Statistics Law) to report data to the CSB. 

Data are only sent to Eurostat.

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

Statistics Law had adopted on January 1, 2016 governs all statistics collected and published by the CSB. This Law:

— guarantees that statistical analysis shall be objective and independent from any political party or trend, and that State authorities shall under no circumstances be allowed to influence the decisions of statistical agencies based on the provided statistical information;

— provides that the CSB cannot publish, or otherwise make available to any individual or organization, statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity.

Chapter III Organisation of Production of Official Statistics

 Section 17. Data Processing and Statistical Confidentiality:

(1) The statistical institution shall use the data that are obtained in accordance with Sections 14, 15, and 16 of this Law for the production of official statistics, with the exception of cases laid down in Sections 25 and 26 of this Law.

(2) The data may be modified, supplemented or combined with other data available to the statistical institution, as well as re-used for the production of other official statistics.

(3) In using data, the statistical institution has the right to establish and maintain statistical registers for the production of official statistics.

(4) The statistical institution shall determine the data storage duration, by taking into account the needs for production of official statistics.

(5) Data of a natural person obtained for the production of official statistics shall be anonymised immediately after collection, testing and linking thereof, except the case where personal data are still required for production of official statistics. The statistical institution shall ensure that the identifying data are stored safely and separately from other data.

(6) The statistical institution shall take all the necessary measures to prevent unauthorised access to data, data modification or dissemination, accidental or unauthorised destruction.

(7) Employees of the statistical institution shall not disclose data or any other restricted access information coming to their knowledge in the performance of their service or work duties. This shall also apply to persons who are temporarily involved in the production of official statistics or have terminated employment or service relations.

Official Statistics Law can be found on the CSB Internet website, English version is here. The CSB disseminates the data as a service to the public (for the data included in the Statistical State Program). Information is disseminated and available in Press Releases, in publications at the Information centre of CSB, and the website. All publications can be purchased (or subscriptions made) from the Information Centre of the CSB of Latvia, 1 Lacplesa Street, Riga, LV 1301, e-mail: info@csp.gov.lv. Special requests for data can also be provided, against payment. 

Data are published at the appropriate activity level at which they are not confidential.

Statistical data shall be considered confidential if they directly or indirectly allow for identification of the private individuals or State authorities regarding which personal statistical data have been provided. Confidential data are treated by suppression. Data are confidential if there are 3 or less enterprises or one enterprise accounts for more then 80% or two of them more than 90%. Also the data of individual enterprises are confidential.

Advance dissemination of release calendar

An Advance release calendar showing release dates for the current year is disseminated. Data are published at the date indicated after 13.00 (by Latvian time).

Advance release calendar 

Simultaneous release to all interested parties

The data are released simultaneously to all interested parties.

Identification of internal government access to data before release

There is no internal government access to the data prior to their release to the public.

Transmission to Eurostat and further use of the statistics

The data are regularly transmitted to Eurostat according to the methodology and deadline in the Regulation.

Quarterly

Identification of ministerial commentary on the occasion of statistical releases

There is no ministerial commentary accompanying the release of the data.

Quarterly news releases on number of persons employed, hours worked and wages.

Name of national paper publications

The number of persons employed in full time units, number hours worked, wages and salaries  are published in a statistical yearbook.

Name of national electronic dissemination

The number of persons employed (occupied posts), average number of employees in full time units, number of hours worked, wages and salaries  are published on the CSB Internet website.

Information about this indicators is available on the CSB Internet websites statistics database.

Frequency of publication: once in a quarter

Activity coverage: see paragraph 3.3

Lenght of time series:

Data on the indices of persons employed in industry, construction, trade and services are available since 2000.

Data on the indices of hours worked and earnings in industry and construction are available since 2000.

Data on the indices of hours worked and earnings in trade and services are available since 2005.

Time series include unadjusted, seasonally adjusted and by working day adjusted data (compared with previous period and with similar period of previous year).

Not available.

Data are sent to Eurostat.

Dissemination of documentation on methodology and sources used in preparing statistics

A short description of the methodology and data sources is published in a Statistical Yearbook of Latvia as well as in data bases on the CSB Internet website. These publications are available also in English. The Yearbook can be downloaded here.

Description of standard tables produced

The data are broken down by NACE Rev. 2 divisions (2-digit level), and between the public and private sector.

The quality indicators are calculated taking into account Eurostat defined methodology for the calculation of the Quality indicators and documented into Project's Documentation System. In this system all statistical products (surveys and calculations) are described by production processes. These national standartized quality reports are published in CSB webpage in Latvian.

Summary description of quality criteria calculated for national purposes

Quality guidelines of the CSB.

The quality of statistics is assessed according to five quality criteria: relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, coherence and comparability. Corresponding quality indicators are documented into Project's Documentation System.

STS data are relevant in evaluation of economic development in the country and for STS requirements.

Not available.

There are no missing variables or breakdowns.

All required measures are implemented.

The quality of statistics is assessed according to five quality criteria: relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, coherence and comparability.

The quality indicators are calculated taking into account Eurostat defined methodology for the calculation of the Quality indicators and documented into Project's Documentation System.

The sampling error in the data is small.

The quality indicators are calculated quarterly for STS.

For detailed information about coefficients of variation see annex.

Coefficients of variation are expressed as percentage, they are calculated on absolute values.

Response rate

For 2023, the response rate across all four quarters was around 98%.

Actions to speed up or increase the rate of response

Postal and e-mail reminders, telephone contacts.

Timeliness

The data is ready 60 days after the end of the reference quarter.

Timetable of data collection

The questionnaires are sent to the reporting units at the beginning of the year. The deadline for replies is 15 days from the end of the reference quarter. The survey is closed and no more replies are treated for a particular quarter 42 days from the end of the reference quarter.

The data are regularly transmitted to Eurostat according the methodology and deadline in Regulation.

There are no differences, because for these data common methodology is used as it is defined in regulation EBS-Regulation (EU regulation 2019/2152)

There were no changes made.

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

The cross-checks are made with SBS data and the administrative data. Data are consistent with SBS data.

Confrontation with other data sets

Not available.

For industry, construction, trade and services STS aggregates are coherent with sub-aggregates.

Respondent's burden in 2023 on average was 7038 hours.

Quarterly data is revised at 4^th quarter from the beginning of the year. 

The reasons for the revisions are the following:

- New economically active enterprises were included in the population and the enterprise weights were recalculated;

- Lack of administrative data on the last months of the quarter for statistical units with the number of employees 1-10 as well as data on the reference quarter for microenterprises (micro-enterprise tax payers) when data development is carried out. Administrative data are available on the 60th day after the reference month or the quarter (for microenterprises), which is too late to include data in data development – therefore, data from the 2^nd month of the quarter or data of previous quarter (for microenterprises) are included.

- For some enterprises in the sample the main economic activity was changed. The main economic activity of the enterprises is updated according the yearly questionnaires of the main indicators of the enterprise.

- The data revisions for the previous quarters are allowed, obligatory and accepted by the Central Statistical Bureau if the data delivered by the enterprises and institutions in the current quarter do not correspond to the data of the previous quarter due to mistakes. This is also the reason of the revision of the data.

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

Quarterly data is revised at 4^th quarter from the beginning of the year. Annual data is not revised.

Seasonal and working day adjustment of data is made from time series beginning.

All revisions of previous quarters are done as they arise. The revised data is published labelled as "Revised data". The revisions are announced simultaneously with their publication. An advance release calendar showing release dates for the current year.

Type of source : Statistical enterprise survey and administrative data.

Frame on which the source is based : Statistical Business Register (SBR).

Sample or census : The survey is a stratified sample survey (simple random sampling).

Criteria for stratification : Economic activity (NACE Rev. 2), number of employed persons and ownership form.

Threshold values and percentages :

Threshold values: — 1-9; 10-13; 14-19; 20-49; 50-99, 100 and more; — Economic activity (NACE Rev. 2) and persons employed; — state (including municipal) or private enterprise.

The following strata were used: The statistical business register holds information on all enterprises that are registered in the administrative Enterprise Register of the Republic of Latvia. In the sampling frame only economically active enterprises from the business register are included.

Enterprises are divided into the following main groups: all state and municipal enterprises with state or municipal share 50% or more, and all private enterprises.

Frequency of updating the sample : Enterprises that are newly economically active and have 100 and more persons employed are included in the population and in the sample each quarter.

Population and sample size :  In 2023, there were 9125 industrial enterprises in the population, 2004 in the sampling frame and 1315 in the sample; 8351 construction enterprises in the population, 1356 in the sampling frame and 510 in the sample; 21178 trade enterprises in the population, 2005 in the sampling frame and 693 in the sample; 61537 service enterprises in the population, 4724 in the sampling frame and 2332 in the sample.

Quarterly.

Questionnaires used in the survey

For enterprises two types of questionnaire are used – the quarterly Survey of Labour 2-labour (Parskats par darbu 2-darbs) and the Supplement to Survey of Labour 2-labour-supplement (Pārskata par darbu pielikums pa nozarēm 2-darbs-pielikums).

Data collection media

The electronic survey system is the main data collection tool  (99%);  postal and e-mail questionnaire (1%) are used in data collection.

Data is validated using logical and mathematical controls.

CSB has the main program used for data entry, processing with automatic control and validation tools - ISDMS (Integrated Statistical Data Management System).

Standard MS Office professional software (MS Excel, MS Access) is used daily for compilation of STS. The data are compared with the previous period, the same period with the previous year and base year. Daily data validation is organized in the following levels:

Validation level 1. Data are automatically checked during data input process.

Validation level 2 and 3. The micro-data are checked with the previous period and the same period with the previous year.

Validation level 4. The data are checked with administrative data from State Revenue Service. The STS data are compared with SBS data as well.

Validation level 5. Consistency checks between the data available in the CSB database and information available in the EUROSTAT database.

For transmission to Eurostat, the file format, code lists and consistency checking is done by Genedy application.

Estimates for non-response : For non-responding enterprises from the exhaustive strata imputation procedures are used. The number of employees, hours worked and wages are taken from the State Revenue Service. For other non-responding enterprises the data are simply grossed up to the population by adjusting the weighting factors.

Estimates for grossing-up to population levels : The estimation procedure is based on the generalized regression (GREG) estimator using auxiliary information about number of employees from State Revenue Service broken down by NACE Rev. 2 sections (except enterprises from the exhaustive strata and outliers).

Type of index : Fixed base year.

Method of weighting and chaining : Not relevant.

WDA, SA and other calculations

For Gross wages and salaries and Hours worked WDA, SA is made. 

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