International Labor Statistics (IN) in.txt Section Listing 1. Survey Definition 2. FTP files listed in the survey directory. 3. Time series, series file, data file, & mapping file definitions and relationships 4. Series file format and field definitions 5. Data file format and field definitions 6. Mapping file formats and field definitions 7. Data Element Dictionary (To print, set page layout to portrait with half inch side margins and set the font to a non-proportional font, such as courier or courier new.) ================================================================================ Section 1 ================================================================================ The following is a definition of: INTERNATIONAL LABOR STATISTICS (IN) Survey Description: The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collects and publishes statistical information to compare labor conditions and developments in the United States and selected foreign economies. All of the measures are based on data from the statistical agencies of the foreign economies covered or from international organizations. The Bureau does not initiate surveys or data collection programs abroad. The statistical concepts and methods used in different countries are developed primarily to meet domestic rather than international needs. When there are substantial conceptual differences, BLS adjusts the data to improve comparability or describes the differences so users will not draw misleading conclusions. In adjusting data for greater comparability, BLS must depend on the availability of relevant information, and in some instances it is necessary to make estimates based on incomplete data. Therefore it is possible to achieve only approximate statistical comparability among countries. The following are summary descriptions of the three general International Labor Statistics (IN) series available on LABSTAT: labor force, productivity, and consumer price indexes (CPI). Adjustments for comparability of concepts are made for the first two series. For the CPI, however, no adjustments are made except to convert the indexes to a common base year. Labor Force Labor force, employment, unemployment, and related measures are adjusted as closely as possible to U.S. concepts, with the exception of lower age limits and the treatment of layoffs, for which no adjustments are made. In addition, for some countries, no adjustment is made for deviations from U.S. concepts in the treatment of unpaid family workers, persons waiting to start a new job, and passive job seekers (for example, persons only reading newspaper ads as their method of job search). In the United States, job search must be "active," such as placing or answering advertisements, and simply reading ads is not enough to qualify as active search. Canada and the European countries classify passive jobseekers as unemployed. An adjustment is made to exclude them in Canada, but not in the European countries where the phenomenon is less prevalent. These "unadjusted" differences are believed to have a negligible effect on the comparisons. Measures shown are on a civilian basis, and the population figures used to compute the employment to population ratios and labor force participation rates refer to the working- age population. Labor force, employment, unemployment, and related measures for Canada are the official adjusted to U.S. concepts figures prepared by Statistics Canada; the adjusted measures for all other countries are computed by BLS. No adjustments are made for Australia. Annual measures are currently obtained from monthly or quarterly household surveys for all countries. Quarterly unemployment rates for most countries are also derived from labor force surveys. For some countries, quarterly rates are calculated by applying annual adjustment factors to current administrative data and therefore should be viewed as less precise indicators of unemployment under U.S. concepts than the annual figures. For up to date information on adjustments and breaks in series, see the Country Notes of "Comparative Civilian Labor Force Statistics, Ten Countries" at ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/ForeignLabor/flslforc.txt. Productivity Indexes of manufacturing productivity, unit labor costs, and related measures are computed using basic series on manufacturing output, aggregate labor input, and aggregate compensation. Labor productivity is defined as real output per hour worked. Unit labor costs are defined as the cost of labor input required to produce one unit of output. They are computed as compensation in nominal terms divided by real output. The Bureau of Labor Statistics constructs trends of manufacturing labor productivity, hourly compensation costs, and unit labor costs from three basic aggregate measures - output, total labor hours, and total compensation. The hours and compensation measures refer to employees (wage and salary earners) in Belgium and Taiwan. For all other economies, the measures refer to all employed persons, including employees, self-employed persons, and unpaid family workers. For all of the economies, the term "hours" refers to hours worked. In general, the measures relate to total manufacturing as defined by the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC). For the United States and Canada the definition followed is that of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The measures for France include parts of mining. For most countries, data for the most recent years are based on the United Nations System of National Accounts 1993 (SNA 93). For other countries and years, data were compiled according to previously used systems. To obtain historical time series, BLS may link together data series which were compiled and published according to different accounting systems by the countries' statistical agencies. For most countries, the output measures are real value added in manufacturing from national accounts. However, output for Japan prior to 1970 and for the Netherlands prior to 1960 are indexes of industrial production. The manufacturing value added measures for the United Kingdom are essentially identical to their indexes of industrial production. The output measure for manufacturing in the United States is the chain-weighted index of real gross product originating (deflated value added), introduced by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce in August 1996. Because these value added output data for U.S. manufacturing industries are not available for years prior to 1977, the comparative U.S. measures of output, output per hour, and unit labor costs begin with 1977. Hours worked data are used to measure labor input for productivity. For the United States, the hours worked data are taken from the BLS major sector productivity program. The aggregate hours worked series used for France (from 1970 forward), Canada, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are series published with the national accounts. For the former West Germany after 1959 and Germany from 1991, BLS uses aggregate hours worked, which were developed by a research institute of the German Ministry of Labor for use with the national accounts employment figures. For the United Kingdom from 1992, an annual index of total manufacturing hours is used. For all other countries, the U.K. before 1992, and the former West Germany before 1959, BLS constructs its own estimates of aggregate hours, using employment figures published with the national accounts, or other comprehensive employment series, and estimates of average annual hours worked. The Italian hours worked series is based on estimates by the Bank of Italy. The compensation (labor cost) measures are from national accounts data. Compensation includes employer expenditures for legally required insurance programs and contractual and private benefit plans, in addition to all payments made in cash or in kind directly to employees. When data for the self-employed are not available, total compensation is estimated by assuming the same average compensation for the self-employed as for employees. Labor cost is defined as compensation plus employment taxes minus employment subsidies, i.e. the cost to employers of hiring labor. For most countries labor cost is the same as compensation. However, for Australia, Canada, France, and Sweden, compensation is increased to account for important taxes on payroll or employment. For the United Kingdom, compensation is reduced between 1967 and 1991 to account for subsidies. Consumer Price Indexes The consumer price indexes are the official indexes of each country. They reflect price changes in the market basket of goods and services purchased by the whole population or by a particular population group. Two indexes are included for Italy and the Netherlands. The indexes relate to the whole population for Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy (index 1), Japan (except agricultural and single person households), Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom (except pensioner and high income households); middle-income worker households in Italy (index 2) and Spain, and urban consumers in the United States. No adjustments are made except to convert them to a common base. In particular, adjustments are not made for differences in the treatment of homeownership costs or seasonal foods. Summary Data Available: The LABSTAT database provides data prepared by the Division of Foreign Labor Statistics. Labor force, employment, unemployment, and related statistics, adjusted to approximate U.S. concepts, are available on an annual basis for ten countries beginning with 1959, except for Australia (1964) and the Netherlands (1973); unemployment rates are available on a quarterly basis, seasonally adjusted, for nine countries for the most recent quarters of the present year and two prior years. Data for Germany after unification begin with 1991; data for the former West Germany end with 1990. Indexes of manufacturing productivity, labor costs, and related measures are available on an annual basis for 15 economies, in most cases, beginning with 1950. Separate index series are calculated for Germany and for the former West Germany. Data for Germany after unification begin with 1991; data for the former West Germany end with 1998. Consumer price indexes for all items are available on an annual basis usually beginning with 1950 for 16 countries. Data for Germany after unification begin with 1991; data for the former West Germany are not available online. Frequency of Observations: Data are annual and quarterly for the unemployment rates, and annual for all other series. Data Characteristics: The International Labor Statistics include indexes, rates or ratios, and quantity levels. The type of measure is indicated in the series title. * Indexes are stored to one decimal place. * Index bases for consumer prices are 1982-84 = 100. * Index bases for manufacturing productivity, labor costs, and related measures are 1992 = 100. * Rates and ratios are expressed as percents with one decimal place. * Quantity levels are measured in thousands (e.g. civilian labor force) and are stored with no decimal places. Updating Schedule: The three general series groups are updated according to the following approximate schedules: * Labor force statistics are updated once or twice yearly; Seasonally adjusted quarterly unemployment rates are updated quarterly. * Indexes of manufacturing productivity, labor costs, and related measures are updated twice a year. * Consumer price indexes are updated annually. References: BLS Handbook of Methods, Chapter 12. ================================================================================== Section 2 ================================================================================== The following International Labor Statistics files are on the BLS internet in the sub-directory pub/time.series/in: in.contacts - Contacts for in survey in.country - Country codes mapping file in.data.0.Current - All current year-to-date data in.data.1.AllData - All data in.group - Group codes mapping file in.period - Period codes mapping file in.series - All series and their beginning and end dates in.suffix - Type codes mapping file in.txt - General information ================================================================================= Section 3 ================================================================================= The definition of a time series, its relationship to and the interrelationship among series, data and mapping files is detailed below: A time series refers to a set of data observed over an extended period of time over consistent time intervals (i.e. monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually). BLS time series data are typically produced at monthly intervals and represent data ranging from a specific consumer item in a specific geographical area whose price is gathered monthly to a category of worker in a specific industry whose employment rate is being recorded monthly, etc. The FTP files are organized such that data users are provided with the following set of files to use in their efforts to interpret data files: a) a series file (only one series file per survey) b) mapping files c) data files The series file contains a set of codes which, together, compose a series identification code that serves to uniquely identify a single time series. Additionally, the series file contains the following series-level information: a) the period and year corresponding to the first data observation b) the period and year corresponding to the most recent data observation The mapping files are definition files that contain explanatory text descriptions that correspond to each of the various codes contained within each series identification code. The data file contains one line of data for each observation period pertaining to a specific time series. Each line contains a reference to the following: a) a series identification code b) year in which data is observed c) period for which data is observed (M13 and Q05 indicate annual averages) d) value e) footnote code (if available) ================================================================================= Section 4 ================================================================================= File Structure and Format: The following represents the file format used to define in.series. Note that the Field Numbers are for reference only; they do not exist in the database. Data files are in ASCII text format. Data elements are separated by tabs; the first record of each file contains the column headers for the data elements stored in each field. Each record ends with a new line character. Field #/Data Element Length Value(Example) 1. series_id 17 INS0022AU0 2. group_code 4 0022 3. country_code 2 AU 4. suffix_code 1 1 5. seasonal 1 S 6. begin_year 4 1990 7. begin_period 3 Q01 8. end_year 4 2000 9. end_period 3 Q04 The series_id (INS0022AU0) can be broken out into: Code Value survey abbreviation = IN seasonal (code) = S group_code = 0022 country_code = AU suffix_code = 0 ================================================================================== Section 5 ================================================================================== File Structure and Format: The following represents the file format used to define each data file. Note that the field numbers are for reference only; they do not exist in the database. Data files are in ASCII text format. Data elements are separated by tabs; the first record of each file contains the column headers for the data elements stored in each field. Each record ends with a new line character. The in.data file is partitioned into two separate files: 1. in.data.0.Current - All current year-to-date data 2. in.data.1.AllData - All data Both of the above-named data files have the following format: Field #/Data Element Length Value(Example) 1. series_id 17 INS0022AU0 2. year 4 1995 3. period 3 Q01 4. value 12 8.8 5. footnote_codes 10 It varies The series_id (INS0022AU0) can be broken out into: Code Value survey abbreviation = IN seasonal (code) = S group_code = 0022 country_code = AU suffix_code = 0 ================================================================================ Section 6 ================================================================================ File Structure and Format: The following represents the file format used to define each mapping file. Note that the field numbers are for reference only; they do not exist in the database. Mapping files are in ASCII text format. Data elements are separated by tabs; the first record of each file contains the column headers for the data elements stored in each field. Each record ends with a new line character. File Name: in.country Field #/Data Element Length Value(Example) 1. country_code 2 AT 2. country_name 20 Text File Name: in.group Field #/Data Element Length Value(Example) 1. group_code 4 0002 2. group_name 60 Text File Name: in.period Field #/Data Element Length Value(Example) 1. period 3 Q01 2. period_abbr 5 JAN 3. period_name 20 Text File Name: in.suffix Field #/Data Element Length Value(Example) 1. suffix_code 1 1 2. suffix_text 90 Text ========================================================================================= Section 7 ========================================================================================= INTERNATIONAL LABOR STATISTICS (IN) DATABASE ELEMENTS Data Element Length Value(Example) Description begin_period 3 A01 Identifies first data observation or Q01-Q05 within the first year for which Ex: QO1=First data is available for a given quarter time series. (A=Annually, Q=Quarterly, Q05=Annual Avg) begin_year 4 YYYY Identifies first year for which Ex: 1975 data is available for a given time series. country_code 2 AT Code identifying the country to which the data refer. country_name 20 Text Name of the country to which Ex: Austria the data refer. end_period 3 A01, Identifies last data observation or Q01-Q05 within the last year for which Ex: Q01=First data is available for a given quarter time series. (A=Annually, Q=Quarterly, Q05=Annual Avg) end_year 4 YYYY Identifies last year for which Ex: 1980 data is available for a given time series. footnote_codes 10 It varies Identifies footnotes for the data series. group_code 4 0002 Code identifying type of data in the series. group_name 60 Text Name of type of data in the Ex: Unemployment series. Rate period_abbr 5 Period name Abbreviation of period name. abbreviation Ex: QTR1 period 3 A01, Identifies period for which or Q01-Q05 data is observed. (A=Annually, Q=Quarterly, Q05=Annual Avg) Ex: Q01=First quarter period_name 20 Text Full name of period to which Ex: June the data observation refers. seasonal 1 S=Seasonally Code identifying whether the Adjusted data are seasonally adjusted. U=Unadjusted series_id 17 INS0022AU0 Code identifying the specific series. suffix_code 1 1 Code identifying a subgroup or status of the data series. suffix_text 90 Text Description of the suffix Ex: All code. Households(CPI) value 12 Index,rate,or Data observation. quantity Ex: 8.8 year 4 YYYY Identifies year of observation. Ex: 1990