LABOUR STATISTICS

Explanation of Monthly Labour Survey

1. Outline of Monthly Labour Survey

(1)	Purpose of the Survey
	The purpose of the survey is to clarify changes in employment, earnings and hours worked of regular employees working in establishments.

(2)	Composition of the Survey
	This survey consists of the following three surveys: National Survey (establishments with 5 or more regular employees) Prefectural Survey (establishments with 5 or more regular employees) Special Survey (establishments with 1-4 regular employees)

(3)	Scope and Method of the Survey
1.	National Survey This survey is conducted on approximately 33,000 establishments, selected from all private and public sector establishments normally employing 5 or more regular employees and belonging to Mining, Construction. Manufacturing, Electricity, Gas, Heat Supply and Water, Transport and Communication, Wholesale and Retail Trade, Eating and Drinking Places, Financing and Insurance, Real Estate and Services (Excluding domestic services in residence and without residence out of other services on life, and diplomatic official duties) according to the Standard Industrial Classification for Japan. This survey is designed to keep the sampling errors for "contractual cash earnings" within a fixed magnitude by industry and by size of establishment. About 16,700 Sample establishments with 30 or more regular employees are selected from the establishment list of Establishment Census by a stratified one stage sampling method. Samples are newly extracted at an interval of roughly every 3 years. Meanwhile, sample establishments with 5-29 regular employees are selected by a stratified two stage sampling method. Firstly about 1,900 districts which are selected from the survey districts of Monthly Labour survey (about 50,000 districts) to be surveyed are selected, and secondly sample establishments are selected from the establishment lists made for the districts. Samples are renewed so that each of the selected establishment is surveyed for 18 months continuously and every 6 months one thirds of the samples are replaced.
2.	Prefectural Survey This survey is conducted on approximately 43,500 establishments as same industry and size as in National Survey.
3.	Special Survey This survey is conducted on all establishments on the following three points.
	(1)	locate at the 4,750 sample districts selected from the survey districts of Monthly Labour Survey (about 96,000 districts)
	(2)	belong to Mining, Construction, Manufacturing, Electricity, Gas, Heat Supply and Water, Transport and Communication, Wholesale and Retail Trade, Eating and Drinking Places, Financing and Insurance, Real Estate and Services (Excluding domestic services in residence and without residence out of other services on life, and diplomatic official duties) according to the Standard Industrial Classification for Japan
	(3)	employ 1-4 regular employees as of the end of July every year (or as of the last day of the payroll period, in establishments with a fixed last day).

2. Explanation of the terms

(1)

Employees
Number of Regular Employees:
Regular Employees are workers who satisfy one of the following conditions:

persons hired for an indefinite period or for longer than one month

ii)

persons hired by the day or for less than one month and who were hired for 18 days or more in each of the two preceding months

iii)

the board directors of corporations who work regularly and are paid a salary every month

iv)

family members of the owner of a business, who work for the business regularly and are paid a salary every month

Accession Rate:

Accession Rate =

Total increase of Regular Employees

Number of Regular Employees at the end of the previous month

Total increase of regular employees:

newly hired employees, employees transferred to the establishments (including employees transferred from some other establishment of the same organization) and so on.

Separation Rate:

Separation Rate =

Total decrease of Regular Employees

Number of Regular Employees at the end of the previous month

Total decrease of regular employees:

retired employees, employees transferred from the establishments (including employees transferred to some other establishment of the same organization) and so on.

Rate of part-time employees:

Rate of part-time employees =

Number of part-time employees

Number of Regular Employees at the end of the month

(2)

Days worked
The total number of days during the survey period when an employee actually attend his/her work place. Days the employee did not attend for work are not counted, even though they may be paid holidays. However, if an employee works for at least one hour on a day, it is counted a day worked.

(3)

Actual Hours Worked
The number of hours actually worked by an employee during the survey period. Neither paid nor unpaid break periods are included. However, rest periods for mine workers in the mining industry and waiting periods for workers in the transportation industry are included. Night duty not connected with actual duties is not included.
Hours worked are classified as follows.

Total hours worked	{	Scheduled working hours
		Non-scheduled working hours

Scheduled working hours:

actual number of hours worked between starting and ending hours of employment determined by the work regulations of the establishment.

Non-scheduled working hours:

actual number of hours worked when reporting to work early in the morning, when working overtime, when on emergency call-up, or when working on a day off.

Total hours worked:

total for "scheduled working hours" and "non-scheduled working hours."

(4)

Cash Earnings

Cash earnings:

money earned before deductions for income tax, for social insurance contributions, for union dues, for payment for goods purchased, etc.

Cash earnings are classified as follows.

Total cash earnings	{	Contractual cash earnings
		{	Scheduled cash earnings
			Non-scheduled cash earnings (Overtime pay)
		Special cash earnings

Contractual cash earnings:

earnings paid according to method and conditions previously determined by labour contracts, collective agreements, or wage regulations of establishments.

Scheduled cash earnings:

contractual cash earnings excluding overtime pay. Overtime pay is the wage paid for work exceeding scheduled working hours, and for work on days off or night work, that is allowances for working outside of work hours, for night work, for reporting to work early in the morning, and for overnight duty.

Special cash earnings:

amount actually paid to the employee during the survey period for temporary or unforeseen reasons not based on any previous agreement, contract, or rule. Also included in this category are retroactive payment of wages as a result of a new agreement, and payments such as summer and year-end bonuses which, though terms and amounts are fixed by collective agreements, are calculated over a period exceeding three months, and such as allowances (e.g., marriage allowance) paid with respect to unforeseen events.

Total cash earnings:

total for "contractual cash earnings" and "special cash earnings."

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