Definition: Number of employees (Index)

Category: Short-term statistics

2006 definition

The number of employees is used as a temporary approximation of the number of persons employed.

The number of employees is defined as those persons who work for an employer and who have a contract of employment and receive compensation in the form of wages, salaries, fees, gratuities, piecework pay or remuneration in kind.

The relationship of employer to employee exists when there is an agreement, which may be formal or informal, between an enterprise and a person, normally entered into voluntarily by both parties, whereby the person works for the enterprise in return for remuneration in cash or in kind.

A worker is considered to be a wage or salary earner of a particular unit if he or she receives a wage or salary from the unit regardless of where the work is done (in or outside the production unit). A worker from a temporary employment agency is considered to be an employee of the temporary employment agency and not of the unit (customer) in which they work.

According to this definition, the groups included are:

- paid working proprietors,
- students who have a formal commitment whereby they contribute to the unit’s process of production in return for remuneration and/or education services,
- employees engaged under a contract specifically designed to encourage the recruitment of unemployed persons,
- home workers if there is an explicit agreement that the home worker is remunerated on the basis of the work done and they are included on the payroll.

The number of employees includes part-time workers, seasonal workers, and persons on strike or on short-term leave, but excludes persons on long-term leave.

The number of employees does not include voluntary workers.

The number of employees should be determined as a representative figure for the reference period. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2006/l_281/l_28120061012en00150029.pdf European Union, Regulation (EC) No 588/2001 of 26 March 2001 concerning short-term statisticsEuropean Union, Council Regulation No. 58/97 concerning structural business statistics