Czech Statistical Office

Trade, Transport, Services, Tourism and Environment Statistics Unit

Český statistický úřad
Na padesátém 81
100 82 Praha 10
Czech Republic

- Number of persons employed
- Hours worked
- Gross wages and salaries

The three above mentioned indicators are primarily based on specific quarterly survey. For the details on data sources and outputs compilation please see the questions 18.1-18.5.

NACE Rev. 2 (national version CZ NACE).

NACE Rev. 2 Divisions 45, 46 and 47.

- Number of persons emploed:
the total number of persons who work in the observation unit i.e. number of employees (incl. part-time workers converted into full time equivalents but excl. apprentices) and self-employees (working proprietors and unpaid family workers for whom work for the unit is their main activity).
- Hours worked:
the aggregate number of hours actually worked by the persons employed (as defined above) for the output of the observation unit during the reference period.
- Gross wages and salaries:
the total sum of renumeration payable to all employees (excl. apprentices) in return for work done during the reference period. Other personnel cost are not included.

Enterprise.

All market enterprises with main activity in NACE Rev. 2 Divisions 45, 46 and 47. All size classes are included. 

The frame is the Business Register, which is regularily updated with demographic changes.

Statistical population includes:

All activities on the territory of the Czech Republic are covered including activities of local units (branches) which do not constitute a separate legal entity and which are dependent on foreign enterprises. Excluded are activities of foreign enterprises carried out by their personnel (non-residents of the Czech Republic) on the territory of the Czech Republic (e.g. activities of sales representatives, delivery personnel, repair and maintenance teams).

As regards the foreign activities of the enterprises registered in the Czech Republic, the activities of branches which do not constitute a separate legal entity abroad are excluded. Included are, however, activities of the Czech enterprises performed via their employees - Czech residents.

Number of persons employed - from first quarter 2000 onwards
Hours worked - from first quarter 2010 onwards
Gross wages and salaries - from first quarter 2010 onwards

2015=100 for hours worked adjusted by working days. Data for other indicators until the end of 2018 were provided to Eurostat as absolute values and starting from 2019 as indices (2015=100).

Index (%)

Quarter.

- Act No. 89/1995 Coll. on the state statistical service of June 15, 1995, amended by Act No. 220/2000 Coll. and Act No. 411/2000 Coll.

- Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 of 19 May 1998 concerning short-term statistics amended by the Regulation (EC) No 1158/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

The referred indicators are not regularly shared with international organizations, except for Eurostat.

The confidentiality policy is based on:
1. The State Statistical Service Act No. 89/1995,
2. Law on protection of personal data,
3. The internal directive of the Czech Statistical Office referring to the treatment of confidential data.

Data are only published down to an activity level at which they are not confidential. Data allowing direct or indirect identification of individual enterprise can only be published under written permission of all related subjects. The parameters for primary confidential data determination are confidential.

Data are sent to Eurostat 2 months (deadline 2 months and 15 days) after the end of the reference quarter (number of persons employed) and 2 months (deadline 3 months) after the end of the reference quarter (gross wages and salaries, hours worked).

Number of persons employed and hours worked are not published nationally.

Average registered number of employees (headcount) and wages, excl. other personnel expenses are published nationally according to the published deadlines (aproximately 65 days after the end of the reference quarter).

The CZSO release calendar does not include the publication of the variables in question (Number of persons employed and hours worked) as they are not disseminated nationally.

All the standard publication tables are released at the same time for all users. Requests for data that are not included in the standard tables are considered individually, taking into acount all the aspects of quality.

Quarterly.

Data on the number of persons employed and hours worked are not published in the form of news releases. Data on gross wages and salaries are published in the form of news releases.

The variables in question (Number of persons employed and hours worked) are not published nationally. Only average registered number of employee (headcount) and wages, excl. other personnel expenses are published nationally.

Not available.

Microdata are not usually available to users. Each request for microdata, solely for research purposes, is considered individually by the respective experts. According to the recommendation of the experts, the President of CZSO decides whether the microdata will be provided or not.

Time series are sent to Eurostat.

Important aspects and procedures of quality management within statistical production process as well as methodology are documented in the so-called technical projects, event. instructions for surveyors that are available for every statistics produced.
Technical projects in general contain description of the primary input data, data sources, definition of population, sampling procedure, processing technology, requirements for data transfer, control relations and checks, automatic corrections, derived indicators, definition of organization responsibilities, description of controls and relations, methodology of imputations, definition of outputs, description of input, source and user databases, backups, schedules of project and program preparation, schedules of preliminary and final processing, etc. In the CZSO there is a process of technical project preparation that is coordinated by the Department for Methodology of Performing Statistical Processing. For these purposes every year the so-called Schedule of technical preparation of statistical surveys is discussed in the advisory bodies of the President, where activities, terms and responsible units are specified.

An elementary description of methodology is given on the CZSO website.

Audit reports including all the test and analysis carried out within the audit are stored and the public parts are available on request (see also quality management).

1. Irregular methodological audits. Audits are usually carried out by expert group comprising of internal and external experts (NA experts, representatives of universities, ministries etc.).
2. Important aspects and procedures of quality management within statistical production process are documented in the so-called technical projects, event. instructions for surveyors that are available for every statistics produced.

1. Standard STS compliance assessments carried out by Eurostat.
2. The methdological audit (see also Quality assurance) includes inter alia different quality analysis, e.g. benchmark analysis, response analysis, in case od leading indicators, their ability to predict the changes in the economy.
3. Regular response rate measurement.
4. Regular confrontation of estimates with later available data acquired or estimated from statistics with different periodicity.

1. External users: Eurostat, OECD, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Czech National Bank, professional associations, trade unions, media, general public.
2. Internal users: Quarterly National Accounts Department.
The CZSO primarily tries to fulfill its commitments towards the European Commission, however, generally we try to deal with the requirements of all users equally.

No users satisfaction surveys are carried out, however, we are constantly in contact with different groups of users, e.g. ministries, Czech National Bank, different associations (e.g. Association of small and medium sized Enterprises and Crafts of the Czech Republic), users etc.

The Czech Republic provides Eurostat with all data required by the STS Regulation.

Overall asessment:
- Sampling errors are not systematically measured.
- Response rate is reasonable.
- The main problem is the high misclassification mainly in the smallest units.

Sampling error is not regularly measured.

The main problems related to non-sampling errors are the following:
1. Administrative data available for the smallest units in the frame (i.e. natural persons and legal persons without employees, which are not VAT payers) are outdated at the moment when the sample is drawn (data refers to R-1 rather than R). No other data source for activity assessment is available.
2. Relatively high degree of misclassification particularly of small units (natural persons and legal persons without employees, which are not VAT payers). The details are available in the SBS Quality report.
3. Non-response. However, it is not regarded as serious problem.
4. Organisational changes (mergers, splits, births and deaths) in reporting units and in the population as a whole during the year.  The BR is relatively slow, what increases an importance of feedback from infraannual surveys.

The response rate is approx. 90 % at the time when the survey is closed for a reference quarter

Data are sent to Eurostat 2 months (deadline 2 months and 15 days) after the end of the reference quarter (number of persons employed) and 2 months (deadline 3 months) after the end of the reference quarter (gross wages and salaries, hours worked). Data are not published nationally.

Number of persons employed and hours worked are not published nationally.

Average registered number of employees (headcount) and wages, excl. other personnel expenses are published nationally according to the published deadlines (approximately 65 days after the end of the reference quarter).

Releases delivered on time: 100 %

There are a few specifities of the Czech labour market that could lead to minor discrepancies when the comparability of data between countries is concerned, namely:
1. Quite a high number of own-account workers (approximately 975 thousand, 2015 compared to the whole population of the Czech Republic (10,5 million, 2015).
2. Quite a high number of people work as an employee and partly as own-account worker.
3. The quality of the respective indicators are influenced by the shortage of data. Our estimates are based particularly on the administrative (they are available quarterly, but only for emploeyees) and LFC data.

The relevant time series are available from the first quarter of 2000, they are comparable over time.

As basically all labour market data surveyed among businesses are based on the same administrative sources and the same estimation methods, methodological coherence especially between quarterly (STS) and annual (SBS) outputs is secured. The regular coherence checks are taken for granted.

There are no problems regarding internal consistence of the time series in question.

Average quarterly number of employees and quarterly wages are surveyed quarterly. They are a part of the quarterly business questionnaire Práce 2-04. The questionnaire is completed by the sample of approximately 1300 businesses (section G). We do not follow neither cost of individual indicators nor cost of CZSO.

The system of regular revisions is briefly described on the CZSO website.

Methodological changes are announced at the time of the change, major changes in advance.

Revision calendar is published on the CZSO website.

The same revision policy is applied to data released nationally and transmitted to Eurostat.

We distinguish regular/planned and irregular/unplanned revisions. The regular revisions are carried out every quarter, irregular revision are undertaken in case of unpredictable significant events (e.g. a significant respondent corrected data, correction/update of administrative data etc.). After first release, data are usually not changed more than 2 %.

Sources: Statistical survey (Práce 2-04) and administrative data

1) Type of source: Statistical survey (Práce 2-04)

Frame on which the source is based: Business Register (RES)

Sample or census: Stratified sample.

Criteria for stratification: Stratified sample with exhaustive strata. Number of employees, activity (NACE 2-digit level).

Only enterprises with 1 and more employees are covered by the quarterly survey. Strata with 100 and more employees are exhaustive. The questionnaire is completed by the sample of approximately 1300 businesses. From survey we use data only for units with more than 10 employees.

Frequency of updating the sample: The sample is updated quarterly.

2) Type of source: administrative data

Besides the data acquired and estimated through the Práce 2-04 survey, SBS survey and  administrative data on the number of insurance policy holders and the basis of social security insurance assesment are used for the estimation of the indicators in question.

1. Surveyed data are collected quarterly.
2. Administrative data are available 2 months after the end of reference period.

Questionnaire Práce 2-04 is a quarterly questionnaire.

Data are collected by electronic, web and postal questionnaires. Non-responding units are contacted by mail, e-mail or phone and can be sanctioned.

The electronic form of questionnaire contains built-in logical controls that draw respondent's attention to possible errors. Moreover, after receiving, data collected via electronic form of the questionnaire are further validated by statisticians.
Data obtained via the postal form of the questionnaire are entered to the database using specific software (DANTE) with built-in logical controls. When the DANTE software indicates a possible error, the statistician entering data to the database contacts the respondent with the aim to correct/validate data.

1. Number of employees and gross wages and salaries for enterprises with 10 and more employees are estimated using data collected via quarterly surveys and available administrative data (see also source data).  
2. Units in the surveyed part of the population are divided into stratas.
3. Data for each individual nonresponse unit and unit not included in the sample and belonging to the surveyed part of the population are estimated.
4. If a unit didn't submit the questionnaire for the first quarter, the number of employees and gross wages are estimated using the administrative data.
5.  If a unit didn't submit the questionnaire for the second, third or fourth quarter, data are estimated using the data for the first quarter.
6.  Number of employees and gross wages and salaries for the non-surveyed part of the population (units with 10 or less employees) as well as the hours worked and the number of own-account workers (working proprietors and unpaid family workers for whom work for the unit is their main activity)  for all the units in the population are estimated using avaliable administrative data, the latest SBS data and development of LFS data.

Seasonal and working day adjustment is performed on the following series using JDemetra+ software (TRAMO-SEATS method):

NACE Divisions - G45, G46 and G47

For details on seasonal and working day adjustment please see the annexes, which refers to the situation as of 2020.

Not available.