Federal Statistical Office of Germany (DESTATIS)

E 21 "Business indices, seasonal adjustment"

Statistisches Bundesamt
Gustav-Stresemann-Ring 11
D-65189 Wiesbaden
Germany

This indicator is part of the overall STS indicator system which supports business cycle observation. This index of persons employed shows the evolution of employment in industrial activities.

NACE Rev. 2 (Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community)

Division 47

The objective of the index of persons employed is to show the development of employment. The number of persons employed is defined as the total number of persons who work in the observation unit (inclusive of working proprietors, partners working regularly in the unit and unpaid family workers), as well as persons who work outside the unit who belong to it and are paid by it (e.g. sales representatives, delivery personnel, repair and maintenance teams).

The survey on retail trade covers enterprises with an annual turnover in excess of EUR 250,000 and as such approximately 6% of turnover is not covered.

Legal unit

All relevant statistical units in NACE division 47 "Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles" according to the Business Register: ~364,000 units (2014)

Country as a whole

Labour input outside the geographical territory of Germany is not included in the data.

Since 1980

2015 = 100

Index based on the evolution of employment in trade

Month

The laws regulating the collection, treatment and dissemination of statistical data are the Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 of 19 May 1998 concerning short-term statistics with implementing acts (e.g. Commission Regulation No 1503/2006 of 28 September 2006 concerning the definitions) as well as the Federal Statistics Act (1987), the national Trade Statistics Act (HdlStatG of 2001) and the national Law governing the use of administrative sources for Statistics (VwVDG).

Data sent to Eurostat may contain confidential data to compile the European aggregate.

Confidentiality is guaranteed by section 16 of the Federal Statistics Act. It requires that respondents must be informed about their rights and obligations in providing statistical information. This rule is strictly followed. It also applies to the notification that individual data are only used for statistical purposes and - subject to protection procedures - for scientific purposes.

Furthermore, Chapter V “Statistical Confidentiality” of the REGULATION (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council applies.

As regards the confidentiality of data, methods of primary and secondary confidentiality checking have been developed and are being used.

A continuously updated release calendar containing the precise release dates for the reference periods of the following year is published on the website of the FSO always in october.

https://www.destatis.de/SiteGlobals/Forms/Suche/Termine/EN/Terminsuche_Formular.html?nn=43216

Data are available to the public through Eurostat’s Data-Explorer and the national online-database GENESIS. The public is informed by a press release that is published on the homepage of DESTATIS. Additionally, some main users are informed via email at the same point of time (publication date) and there is a possibility to use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) for information about new data.

Monthly

Not available

Not available

https://www-genesis.destatis.de/genesis/online?operation=sprachwechsel&language=en

(search for code 45212)

Not available

The data are sent to Eurostat be released also as national data.

Important methodological papers are published in “Wirtschaft und Statistik” (Economics and Statistics), a bimonthly publication of DESTATIS, that is published through the homepage of DESTATIS.

In the following articles the method is described. These are only available in German.

Wirtschaft und Statistik, Heft 11/2010:Informationen zur Stichprobenrotation by Wein/Dr. Lorentz: Die neue automatisierte Stichprobenrotation bei den Handels- und Gastgewerbestatistiken.

Complete and up-dated metadata are available to the public in form of a standardized national quality reports

https://www.destatis.de/EN/Methods/Quality/QualityReports/Wholesale-Trade-Retail-Trade/einfuehrung.html

The data of German official statistics enjoy a reputation of high reliability in Germany and abroad. The FSO has committed itself to assure and further enhance the level of quality already attained. In order to achieve this task – also in the ESS – the activities of the FSO are based on quality guidelines. To assure quality in the long term, the FSO applies a variety of systematic quality assurance measures, among others the European Statistics Code of Practice.

Detailed descriptions can be found here:

https://www.destatis.de/EN/Methods/Quality/_node.html

The monthly survey is conducted in a decentralized manner. The statistical offices of the Länder are responsible for collecting, checking and processing the respective Länder data. The Federal Statistical Office is entrusted with methodological preparations and the development of the statistics, and it collects the Länder results in order to produce and publish federal results as well as to calculate indices.

The monthly surveys in trade are part of the economic statistical system of the European Union for the purpose of monetary and economic policy. They also provide information on the use of parts of the private consumption. The monthly surveys in the trade are an important addition to the results of the annual trade statistics that provide information about the structure, profitability and productivity in the trade. The main users of trade statistics include the Federal ministries, in particular the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, the respective countries ministries and the German Bundesbank and the European Commission and the European Central Bank. In addition, also include trade associations and interest groups of retail trade and wholesalers to users of trade statistics. The results are also considered in the calculation of national accounts of the Federation and the Länder.

The user satisfaction is measured on different ways:

• Number of downloads/clicks
• Monthly clicks on the topics on Destatis-homepage,
• Quarterly downloads on the on-line database GENESIS,
• Downloads of the Statistical Yearbook sorted by chapters,
• Number of sold printed products or number of downloads of special publications,
• Number of external queries via the costumer management system (CMS) and other analyses of the CMS,
• customer satisfaction surveys (2007 and 2011)

STS requirements according to EU regulations and national laws are fulfilled.

Main sources for errors/potential for bias:

Survey data:

-          Unit- and item-non-response

-          Over- and under-coverage, incorrect classified units in the sample frame

-          Implausible data

-          Incorrect signing of the non-response-case

-          Inappropriate estimation of missing values

The sampling design is selected according to recognized scientific random sample theory methods so that the statistical results can be provided, given the sample size with the best possible precision. 45 days after the end of the month, the so-called measurement report number in the database Genesis-Online is available that still affect around 14% estimation accuracy Shares reducing. An improved estimation program is to increase the precision of the estimate. The monthly surveys commercially ready always to 24 months, that is, the companies have 24 months the opportunity to correct their information. Non-response can therefore affect the 25 months treatment. The reasons for revisions in the previous month results have been researched and documented. The sampling errors are relevant for the policy on aggregate level (WZ-2- and 3-digits) low.

The sampling design for the monthly statistics in retail is selected according to recognized scientific random sample theory methods so that the statistical results can be provided, given the sample size of best precision. Since the report of 2009, the selection plan is based on NACE rev. 2, whereby an improvement in accuracy has been achieved. The relative standard error for the reporting period September 2009 - September 2011.

Typical non-sampling errors occur, like unit- and item-non-response, wrong classified units, missing units or inactive units in the sample frame (Business Register) and so on. Cases of non-unit and non-item response are not of such importance than in other statistics, because missing values have to be estimated.

Replacement of non-response with estimates. In the middle were 27.4% of the results of the press release retail estimated.

Additionally actions to increase the rate of response are used. Those are: written reminders and telephone queries for instance. Besides, there exists a legal obligation for the observation units to respond. Fines can be imposed, if they do not respond.

The survey on retail trade covers enterprises with an annual turnover in excess of EUR 250,000 and as such approximately 6% of turnover is not covered.

First results are released 30 days after the end of the reference month; Additional economic breakdowns are published around 45 days after the end of the reference month

All publication deadlines are met.

Results for federal states (Bundesländer = NUTS 1) are directly comparable to each other.

Since 2003

SBS and STS data (change rates) are not completely coherent. The reasons are the different purposes and hence different methods used for the statistics.

The monthly statistics on trade are internally coherent.

• Costs per year in 1,000 EUR              1,394

• Number of cases per year                   396,000

• Total time per case in min.                 n.a.

• Number of variables per case             3 (turnover and persons employed)

Source: Standard Cost Model (effective 01/01/2012)

Data for short-term business statistics are revised, when additional information becomes available. If errors are detected, they are corrected immediately. Major revisions and changes in methodology are described in “Wirtschaft und Statistik” (Economics and Statistics).

The same revision policy applies to data sent to Eurostat as to data published nationally.

https://www.destatis.de/EN/Methods/Quality/GeneralRevisionsPolicy.html

Data revisions are necessary due to new information, methodological changes or if errors are detected. Detected errors are corrected immediately, while new information is included through regular revisions.

Data is corrected every month. Corrections are possible up to 24 months from the reference period. There is no data about the revision range between the first and the final data.

Statistical survey with 23,500 enterprises.

From 2010 on annual updating of a part of the sample (sample rotation).

Monthly

Since August 2013 the chosen units have to respond on-line. Two methods to report on-line are provided: IDEV and eSTATISTIK.core. IDEV is an internet questionnaire, while eSTATISTIK.core is an application that is based on a special statistical software component. With eSTATISTIK.core enterprises are able to extract statistical raw data automatically from their corporate accounting systems and transfer the compiled data via the Internet to the responsible Statistical Office.

The obligation to provide information is on the owners or directors of the legal unit. Fines can be imposed if they do not response within the period fixed or with the provided reporting systems.

Checking the revisions of results for previous months (NACE-level: 2- and 3-digit).

Non-response or missing values due to late response are estimated if reported data of the 3 previous months is available.

Calendar and seasonal adjustment based on X13 in JDemetra+ 2.2

None