Statistics Netherlands

National accounts - labour accounts

Henri Faasdreef 312, 2492 JP Den Haag

This report describes three variables; Number of employee jobs, Hours worked by employees and wages and salaries in the Netherlands.

The methods described here correspond to the new data collection system for the data sent to Eurostat from 1995 onwards. The data come from the Labour Accounts in the Netherlands.

The main sources used in the compilation of Labour Accounts are:

Up to and including 2005: Labour force survey for distribution of employment across industries

From 2006 and further: administrative records, for distribution of employment across industries

For all years: establishment surveys and national accounts to estimate distribution of employment across subsectors

Based on the National accounts (NA)

All demanded Nace Rev.2 -codes and size classes are covered.

Definition: Based on the National Accounts (NA)

From 2006 onwards figures are based on a monthly updated register on employment, wages and benefits. This register covers the entire economy for employees.

List of variables:

Number of employee jobs are all persons having a job at business units in the Netherlands. Self employed persons make no part of this statistic.

Hours worked by employees are compiled by statistics on paid hours and statistics on bad weather leave, sickness and pregnancy leave, strikes and holiday hours. The hours worked are only known for jobs of employees. Self employed persons make no part of this statistic.

Wages and salaries reflect the summed up gross wages and salaries including special payments of employees. Self employed persons make no part of this statistic, as they have no wages and salaries.

The source covers a total registration of employees. It is called; Monthly insurance policy administration database on wages and social contributions of the Institute for Implementations of Emplyees Insuranses' (UWV)

Also counts that for all employees their hours worked and earnings are known.

All jobs of employees working within the business sectors in the Netherlands are covered.

Source: Monthly insurance policy administration database on wages and social contributions of the Institute for Implementations of Emplyees Insuranses' (UWV)

Domestic concept. All people paid as an employee in the Netherlands are included. Working employees from abroad are included, inhabitants of the Netherlands working outside the border are not included. Working people in the islands Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba are excluded.

Started form the first quarter 1995 until last published quarter.

Base (reference) year: 2021

Indices on number of jobs

Indices on number of hours worked 

Indices on sum of wages and salaries (Earnings) in Euros 

Reference period for the STS is quarterly. Data are based on the revision year 2015 of the Labour Accounts. From the second quarter of 2024 data are based on the revision year 2021 of the Labour Accounts.

Legal basis: Statistics Netherlands is fully independent in terms of its statistical operations with respect to methodology and publications. Independence was granted by the Royal Act of 1899 and reconfirmed by law in 1996 and 2003. The CBS Law of 2003 is available in Dutch and can found via the CBS website (https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/deelnemers-enquetes/deelnemers-enquetes/bedrijven/meer-over-cbs-enquetes/handhaving/wet-regelgeving).

Obligation on units to provide data: The Law of 2003 established the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Central Commission for Statistics. Section 3 states: “The task of the CBS is to carry out statistical research for the government for practice, policy and research purposes and to publish the statistics compiled on the basis of such research". For the surveys carried out under the provisions of the Law of 2003 irregularities with respect the obligation to provide information can be punished with a fine of a maximum of EUR 5,000.

Statistics Netherlands provides data on national business statistics in accordance to the legal basis of European legislation on European business statistics: (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 (EUR-Lex - 32019R2152 - EN - EUR-Lex (europa.eu))

Planned changes in legal basis, obligation to respond and frame used: none

No data sharing

Statistics Netherlands is fully independent in terms of its statistical operations with respect to methodology and publications. Independence was granted by the Royal Act of 1899 and reconfirmed by law in 1996 and 2003.

Data provision was made compulsory by law in 1936. Confidentiality is guaranteed. Individual data are never published without consent.

The Royal Act of 1899 and the Law of 1996 have been repealed by the Law of 20 November 2003. This Law on the Central Bureau of Statistics describes the independence of the director-general of Statistics Netherlands: “The director general shall determine the methods by which the studies included in the work programme and the multi-annual programme will be carried out and the manner in which the results of those studies will be published”.

The Law of 2003 established the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Central Commission for Statistics. Section 3 states: “The task of the CBS is to carry out statistical research for the government for practice, policy and research purposes and to publish the statistics compiled on the basis of such research". Sections 33 through 36 describe the collection of information, sections 37 and 38 describe the use of information gathering and sections 39 through 42 the dissemination of results.

The most relevant clauses are the following:

Section 33: “The director general is authorised to use, for statistical purposes, data from registers (..) the director general is authorised to request, for statistical purposes, data (..) from the categories of companies, independent professionals, institutions and legal persons (..).”

Section 37: “The data (..) shall be used solely for statistical purposes. The data (..) shall only be published in such a way that no recognisable data can be derived from them about an individual person, household, company or institution, unless, (..) there are good reasons to assume that the company or institution concerned will not have any objections to the publication.”

The CBS Law of 2003 is available in Dutch and can be found via the CBS website: https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/deelnemers-enquetes/deelnemers-enquetes/bedrijven/meer-over-cbs-enquetes/handhaving/wet-regelgeving.

Treatment of confidential data: All activities which consist of less than four enterprises or in which one enterprise has a market share of 70% or more are confidential.

Advance dissemination of release calendar :  A calendar of long term press release (a year) and data to all interested parties by issuing a press release is published on the Internet of Statistics Netherlands:; http://www.cbs.nl/en-GB/menu/home/default.htm

https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/publication-calendar

Simultaneous release to all interested parties :  A calendar of long term press release (a year) and data to all interested parties by issuing a press release is published on the Internet of Statistics Netherlands: http://www.cbs.nl/en-GB/menu/home/default.htm 

Identification of internal government access to data before release :  There is no internal government access to the data before their release to the public. 

Transmission to Eurostat and further use of the statistics :  Data are sent to Eurostat via EDAMIS.

Transmission frequency to Eurostat: quarterly

National dissemination: none.

Identification of ministerial commentary on the occasion of statistical releases : There is no ministerial commentary on the occasion of the release of the data.

Name of national paper publications : Annual figures in “National accounts of the Netherlands”, a Dutch and an English edition.

Name of national electronic dissemination : Quarterly data are published electronically together with other data through Statline:https://opendata.cbs.nl/#/CBS/en/

On the online databank of Statistics Netherlands (Statline): https://opendata.cbs.nl/#/CBS/en/

Information and policy regarding microdata acces can be found at: Microdata: Conducting your own research (cbs.nl)

Quarterly estimates are each quarter sent to Eurostat.

Dissemination of documentation on methodology and sources used in preparing statistics : Explanatory notes concerning documentation, etc., and methodological descriptions are published, mostly in Dutch, on the website:https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl

Description of standard tables produced :

45 days after the end of the reference quarter: total number of jobs and volume of employment.;

90 days after the end of the reference quarter: more detailed data on jobs, volume of employment, labour costs by industry (Section level of NACE Rev. 1 and annually at the 2 digit level), gender;

Number of jobs are also disseminated working day adjusted (since 2004).

Data are presented in absolute figures, and as a quarter-on-same quarter of previous year growth rate.

Not applicable

Summary description of quality criteria calculated for national purposes : See point 7. Confidentiality

Statistics Netherland stands for accurate and reliable data.

Statistics Netherlands follows the ESS guidelines on quality management.

Register data is used within the time period of 45 days after a quarter following EBS regulations on the european concepts. The data is more reliable and accurate after T+90 days.

STS provide statistical information necessary to monitor the competitiveness and performance of the business community in the EU. The STS are used by different users (European Commission and ECB, national governments and central banks, economic analysts in private companies and financial institutions) and serve different purposes.

User satisfaction is measured via download statistics of the online databank and with ad hoc user consultations.

All Eurostat requirements are fulfilled.

The registration is not totaly filled after the quarter t+45 days

Not applicable (data stems from registers)

Response rate : See 14.1   Better results are available at quarter t+90 days.

Actions to speed up or increase the rate of response : Not applicable.

Timeliness :

First preliminary data are available for the total number of jobs 45 days after the end of the reference quarter and for more detailed data 90 days after the end of the reference quarter.

Final data are available after 2 years.

Timetable of data collection : Not available.

On time

The EBS Regulations (EUR-Lex - 32019R2152 - EN - EUR-Lex (europa.eu) and the EBS methodological guidelines (European business statistics methodological manual for statistical business registers — 2021 edition - Products Manuals and Guidelines - Eurostat (europa.eu) are applied by the countries transmitting business statistics. This ensures a solid comparability between national data and good-quality European aggregates. However, the data are not 100% comparable with other countries. Each country may apply different collection methods (surveys, use of administrative sources) and different calculation procedures for the data. Within the Netherlands, no seperate geographical data is compiled, thus there is no comparability between regions.

The time series are considered comparable from 1995 and onwards.

Dissemination of information that support statistical cross-checks and provide assurance of reasonableness : The quarterly releases “Dossier Conjunctuur” on https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/dossier/dossier-conjunctuur and "Dashboard Arbeidsmarkt" on https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/visualisaties/dashboard-arbeidsmarkt.  These releases provide data on for instance number of jobs, number of unemployed and wages.

Confrontation with other data sets : Whereas data quality checks within source statistics mainly consist of internal consistency checks for each reference period separately and consistency with the data on one previous period, the Labour accounts (LA) approach introduced additional quality checks in the confrontation stage of the basic data sources.

The identity relations in the conceptual framework do not only define the mutual relations between the published LA variables, they are extensively used during the process of integration to trace data errors, both sampling and non-sampling errors. This is an iterative procedure. The other variables included in the Labour accounts follow the same procedures.

Labour data in National accounts (NA): Within the system of NA the compensation of employees is fully incorporated. In Dutch NA volume of employment has been presented. Wage sums and social contributions have been calculated on a very detailed level. The main sources of the NA also provide data on wages and salaries, employers' social contributions by industry and on the number of jobs. For the compilation of compensation of employees other sources have been used such as social security files and pension funds. A wide range of data quality checks is available, comprising the relation production and wage sum and the relation between wage sum and employment. (See: ‘Explanation of the labour’ (section 9), in National accounts of the Netherlands:  Wim P. Leunis, Linking social and economic statistics through the 1995 Revision of National Accounts and Labour Accounts, Statistics Netherlands National accounts Occ. Paper 093).

Labour accounts data are derived from various data series by statistical integration. This process consists of combining data from different sources to obtain information superior to that provided by the source data as such.

Statistical integration is conducted in four steps:

1. harmonisation: source data are adjusted in order to harmonise each variable as regards definition, classification used and level of detail;

2. adjustment of coverage: in most cases, full coverage is achieved by adding data from other sources, sometimes estimation procedures have to be used;

3. minimisation of measurement errors: even if data are collected according to the same concepts and classifications, but from different sources, measurement errors can cause further discrepancies in the data. These measurement errors have to be identified and their effect eliminated, as far as possible, through confrontation;

4. balancing: small remaining discrepancies are dealt with by a mathematical balancing method (Powel minimisation procedure). Balancing is carried out in such a way that the adjustment percentage of the data resulting from the preceding stages reflect the accuracy with which they are measured.

All adjusted data are coded according to the kind of adjustment mentioned above. In publications, the total effect of each stage on the original figures is presented.

Coherence is just available after quarter t+90 days. Not yet for STS publication date.

For all labour categories (jobs of emplyees, hours worked, earnings of employees), the costs are 50 hours a year.

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

The data are provisional when first released and can be revised with clear indication when new information becomes available. In general quarterly data are revised once a year. They become final two years after the first release of the data.

Final data are published in the ‘National accounts of the Netherlands’.

The major revision of the Labour Accounts is synchronised with the major revision of the National Accounts, leading to a full fit between the two with regard to compensation of employees and volume of employment. The major revision has also been used to process new statistical sources and changes that occurred in existing sources since Labour accounts started in 1987. As estimates focus on getting the best year-on-year changes, discrepancies from actual levels gradually emerged. In 1999 revised data were published from 1995 onwards. Later revisions were in 2001, 2010, 2015 and 2021. From the second quarter of 2024 STS data encorporate the major revision of 2021.

Type of source :

The data come from the Labour Accounts in the Netherlands.

The Labour Accounts use different sources:

a) Household survey; — Labour Force Survey;

b) Establishment surveys; — Annual survey on employment and earnings; — Quarterly survey on employment and earnings; — Labour cost survey; — Quarterly labour cost statistics; — Surveys for specific branches of industry;

c) Administrative records; — Social security records; ; Labour accounts (LA) form a statistical system of core variables on labour acquired through integration, within the statistical information system on labour. It is characterised by its overall coverage and internal consistency. Both over time and between different variables. As such the Labour accounts offer a framework to bring together labour data from all kinds of source statistics. The principal data on the main objects incorporated in the framework are labour input aggregates (persons, jobs, hours etc.) as well as labour payments (as income and as costs). Both are categorised by relevant characteristics.; The data refer to uniformly delineated populations according to uniform classifications and are based on clear definitions and the identity relationships these bring about. These data are generated in a statistical integration process that leads to the most accurate estimates possible on the basis of the available information. The conceptual framework of the LA (annual figures) consists of a set of definitions (identities) both among macro variables and between aggregates and underlying micro data. The compilation of Labour accounts starts with a confrontation of employment data from the sources.; ; Definition: Employment refers to jobs of employees (aged 15 years and over). A job is a job opportunity occupied by an employee. One employee can have more than one job. Included are all employees working one hour or more per week.; Population groups covered. All persons are counted who are in employment as employee, having a formal job attachment, working for a business unit or private household residing in the Netherlands, performing work one hour or more during a week for remuneration, in cash or in kind, for work of at least one hour a week or for work that is withheld from registration of tax and/or social insurance authorities while the payment in itself is legal, who are temporarily out of work (due to illness, bad weather etc.), but who continue to receive their remuneration or have taken a temporarily unpaid leave.; International standards: The ILO standard refers to persons. Employment in the quarterly establishments survey refers to jobs. The ILO standard refers to all employed persons. Employment in our quarterly surveys refer to employees. So self-employed and family workers are not included.; The Labour accounts present employment figures consistent with ESA 2010 guidelines, definitions and accounting rules.

Hours of work; Measure of labour input to all jobs: main and secondary jobs; Volume of employment covers all hours by all persons dedicated to producing goods and services. It can be expressed in full-time equivalent jobs, in years and in number of work hours of all employed.; For employees a full-time equivalent job is the quotient of the annual contractual hours of the job and the annual contractual hours considered full-time in the branch of industry concerned.; Several concepts of work hours are used: contractual hours, overtime hours and hours paid.; Contractual hours are the hours agreed in the contract between employer and employee; included paid sick leave; excluded are paid annual leave and paid public holidays. Overtime. Time worked in addition to normal hours of work for which a premium rate is paid. Hours paid is the sum of contractual hours and overtime. Hours paid exclude hours which are paid for but not worked, such as paid annual leave, public holidays or sick leave, contrary to the legal terms; payment for these hours is allocated to the hours paid and worked. Hours worked consists of hours paid including unpaid overtime and excluding hours not worked, for example; hours of illness, strikes, hours lost due to frost, short-time working, parental leave, hours lost to medical visits etc.

Employment related income: Two concepts of payment are distinguished: gross employee income and labour costs. Gross employee income is approaching the payment as income to the employee. Gross employee income is defined as the wage before deduction of income tax and social contributions payable by the employee. It includes the gross wage, the remuneration for the work done and the continued payment in the case of sickness, weather problems etc., holiday pay and bonuses. This includes wages in cash, allowances, overtime pay, payments under saving schemes, payments in kind (no company cars), tips, employer’s contribution to private medical expenses. Labour costs reflect the employers’ expenses directly related to the employment of labour in the production process. The labour cost concept in Labour accounts is identical to the National accounts’ and ESA 2010 concept ‘compensation of employees’.

The quarterly figures of the Labour accounts are consistent with the annual figures but are published in much less detail. Labour Accounts are since 1999 part of the total system of National Accounts (NA). Within the system of NA the compensation of employees and full-time equivalents is fully incorporated.

Frame on which the source is based : Not applicable. 

Sample or census : Mixture of sample and exhaustive surveys.

Criteria for stratification :

a) Household survey: 1% sample stratified according to several personal characteristics;

b) Establishments surveys: sample of small enterprises, total coverage of large enterprises;

c) Administrative records: total coverage.

Threshold values and percentages : The number of surveyed units varies between surveys. 

Frequency of updating the sample : Not available.

Periodicity of data collection :

a) Household survey: annual continuous survey;

b) Establishments surveys: annual;

c) Administrative records: monthly

Questionnaires used in the survey : Various. 

Planned changes in national questionnaires : Not available. 

Data collection media :

a) Household survey: computer assisted personal interviewing / computer assisted telephone interviewing;

b) Establishments surveys: until 2005;

c) Administrative records: since 2006 a monthly registration of wages, salaries and social benefits.

https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/publicatie/2020/18/de-arbeidsmarkt-in-cijfers-2019#:~:text=In%202019%20werden%20op%20de,aan%20het%20werk%20dan%20ooit. (only in Dutch)

Planned changes in data collection methodology : Not applicable.

The administrative records in the registration are verified by input.

Estimates for non-response : Not applicable. 

Estimates for grossing-up to population levels : Not applicable. 

Type of index : Data are compiled in the form of absolute figures. 

Method of weighting and chaining : Not relevant.

Planned changes in production methods : Not applicable.

WDA, SA and other calculations : Working day adjusted data of hours worked are available since the introduction of NACE Rev. 2.

Calender adjusted data for wages and salaries; a country specific regressor (regARIMA) including national holidays is used, eastern effects are adjusted as a moving holiday if relevant.

Annexes:
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