Hours worked and labour volume in national accounts
What does the indicator describe?
The labour volume comprises the hours actually worked by all persons in employment who, as employees (wage earners, salaried employees, public officials, marginally employed persons, soldiers), as self-employed persons or as family workers, perform a gainful activity within Germany. This includes the hours worked by persons who have several jobs at the same time. However, hours paid but not worked, for example because of annual leave, parental leave, holidays, short-time work or sick leave, are not part of the labour volume. The definition of labour volume is based on the European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA) 1995. Due to the increasing working time flexibilisation, the number of hours worked is growing in importance not only for purposes of continuous labour market monitoring but also with a view to productivity analyses and the utilisation of the factor of labour. Those data are continually compiled on a quarterly basis for national accounting purposes by the Institute for Employment Research of the Federal Employment Agency in co-operation with the Federal Statistical Office. The results on hours worked and on the labour volume are shown as part of national accounts according to the domestic concept (place-of-work concept). Thus they comprise all hours actually worked by persons in employment who have a place of work in Germany, irrespective of their residence.
How is the indicator calculated?
Calculating the labour volume is based on the quarterly and annual data on persons in employment by status in employment and economic branch of national accounts. The calculation of the average number of hours actually worked takes account of calendar factors, institutional factors (weekly working hours, vacation), short-term economic influences (short-time work, paid overtime, balances of overtime accounts), person-related components (number of staff on sick leave, part-time work including marginal employment, parental leave and partial retirement) as well as other factors (industrial dispute, secondary jobs, etc.). The sources used to calculate the average number of hours worked are the administrative statistics of the Federal Employment Agency, statistics of the Federal Statistical Office such as results of the microcensus or the indices of agreed earnings and working hours, the archives of collective agreements of the Institute for Economics and Social Science, the statistics of the number of staff on sick leave of the Federal Ministry of Health and surveys conducted by the Institute for Employment Research. The labour volume is obtained by multiplying the number of persons in employment by the hours worked per person in employment.
When is the indicator released?
The Federal Statistical Office regularly publishes quarterly and annual results on the average number of hours worked and the labour volume in Germany together with employment figures and the gross domestic product. Quarterly data on hours worked for persons in employment and employees as well as in a breakdown by ten groups of economic sectors (according to the German Classification of Economic Activities (WZ) 2008 or the international classification Nomenclature générale des activités économiques dans les Communautés Européennes (NACE) Revision1.2) are published in Germany as early as 48 days after the end of the quarter. First provisional annual results are available as early as in mid-January of the subsequent year. The quarterly figures are consistently linked with the annual results. Also, for reference years from 1991, annual results in a breakdown by 38 economic sectors of WZ 2008 are available.
Detailed results and long time series on hours worked and on the labour volume are available free of charge from the GENESIS-Online database through the tables on national accounts of the Federation (code 81000: 81000-0015, 81000-0016, 81000-0113, 81000-0114). Also, tables are available in Fachserie 18, Reihe 1.2 and Reihe 1.4 of national accounts.
The press releases and the detailed release calendar are available on the website of the Federal Statistical Office.
How accurate is the indicator?
The early first publication of data on hours worked meets the user requirement for up-to-date and timely results, although many data bases are still incomplete at that point in time. As the basic data needed for the working time calculations of the Institute for Employment Research become available only gradually, the completeness and, consequently, the degree of accuracy of the average number of hours worked improve with the time elapsed since the reference period. It is therefore necessary to adjust, at several intervals, the labour volume data for a specific period to the current data situation and also with regard to new working time regulations.
As the national accounting data on persons in employment are a major basis for calculating the number of hours worked, changes in the employment data generally have a direct impact on the number of hours worked.
