Statistical measurement of work performance : gaining understanding through the calculation of work volumes and the full-time equivalents of gainfully employed persons

Abstract

"Central to the public perception of labour market data are the numbers of persons in gainful employment together with those who are not in gainful employment or are without a job. These are so-called headcounts, that is, indicators by which each person affected is counted with the same weight. Along with theses headcounts, however, there are further concepts that capture the actual time that the persons in gainful employment are active on the labour market, such as the volume of work or the full-time equivalent. These measurements of actual work make it possible to judge whether, and to what extent, a rise in the number of persons in gainful employment is due to an increased macroeconomic workload for instance, or whether a unchanged or even declining volume of work is merely being divided among more persons. This article has several aims: Firstly it is intended to show that, along with determining the headcount of persons in gainful employment, data on actual time spent working (in hours) are also necessary. In addition to this, the two most often used measures of time worked are introduced - the volume of work, and the full-time equivalent. Here the fundamental ideas behind both concepts are explained and the existing procedures for calculating these indicators within official German statistics described; we also take a brief look at the data available. Furthermore we show why, in comparison to the full-time equivalent, volume of work should be given the priority as a factor for measuring quantities of work within the framework of observing developments on the labour market." (author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Asef, D., Wanger, S. & Zapf, I. (2011): Statistische Messung des Arbeitseinsatzes. Erkenntnisgewinn durch die Berechnung von Arbeitsvolumen und Vollzeitäquivalenten der Erwerbstätigen. In: Wirtschaft und Statistik No. 11, p. 1058-1064.