Labour costs

1. Contact

1.1. Contact organisation	Statistics Estonia
1.2. Contact organisation unit	Population and Social Statistics Department
1.3. Contact name	Eveli Voolens
1.4. Contact person function	Team Lead
1.5. Contact mail address	51 Tatari Str, 10134 Tallinn, Estonia
1.6. Contact email address	eveli.voolens [at] stat.ee
1.7. Contact phone number	37253979608

2. Metadata update

2.1. Metadata last certified	27/03/2025
2.2. Metadata last update	27/03/2025

3. Statistical presentation

3.1. Data description	Annual average labour costs per employee and average hourly labour costs by economic activity (EMTAK 2008) Components of total labour costs by economic activity (EMTAK 2008)
3.2. Classification system	Estonian Classification of Economic Activities (EMTAK 2008) based on NACE Rev. 2
3.3. Sector coverage	Economically active units – enterprises, institutions, organisations (excl. economic units without salaried employees)
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions	Average annual hourly labour costs – total annual labour costs divided by annual number of hours worked. Average annual labour costs per employee – total annual labour costs divided by average annual number of employees per month, converted into full-time units.
3.5. Statistical unit	Economic unit
3.6. Statistical population	Economically active units FRAME List of economically active units (excl. economic units without salaried employees) generated from the Business Register for Statistical Purposes
3.7. Reference area	Estonia as a whole – by 2-digit code of economic activity
3.8. Time coverage	2000–…
3.9. Base period	Not applicable

4. Unit of measure

Euro

5. Reference period

Year

6. Institutional mandate

6.1. Legal acts and other agreements

DIRECTLY APPLICABLE LEGAL ACTS

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1726/1999 of 27 July 1999 Implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 concerning structural statistics on earnings and on labour costs as regards the definition and transmission of information on labour costs

Commission Regulation (EC) No 698/2006 of 5 May 2006 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 as regards quality evaluation of structural statistics on labour costs and earnings

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1737/2005 of 21 October 2005 amending Regulation (EC) No 1726/1999 as regards the definition and transmission of information on labour costs

Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 of 9 March 1999 concerning structural statistics on earnings and on labour costs

OTHER LEGAL ACTS

Not available

OTHER AGREEMENTS

International Labour Organization (ILO)

7. Confidentiality

7.1. Confidentiality - policy	The dissemination of data collected for the purpose of producing official statistics is guided by the requirements provided for in § 32, § 34, § 35, § 38 of the Official Statistics Act.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment	The treatment of confidential data is regulated by the Procedure for Protection of Data Collected and Processed by Statistics Estonia (in Estonian). See more details on the website of Statistics Estonia in the section Õigusaktid.

8. Release policy

8.1. Release calendar	Notifications about the dissemination of statistics are published in the release calendar, which is available on the website. Every year on 1 October, the release times of the statistical database, news releases, main indicators by IMF SDDS and publications for the following year are announced in the release calendar (in the case of publications – the release month).
8.2. Release calendar access	Calendar
8.3. User access	All users have been granted equal access to official statistics: dissemination dates of official statistics are announced in advance and no user category (incl. Eurostat, state authorities and mass media) is provided access to official statistics before other users. Official statistics are first published in the statistical database. If there is also a news release, it is published simultaneously with data in the statistical database. Official statistics are available on the website at 8:00 a.m. on the date announced in the release calendar.

9. Frequency of dissemination

Over four years

10. Accessibility and clarity

10.1. News release	Not published
10.2. Publications	Not published
10.3. Online database	Data are published under the subject area “Economy / Wages and salaries and labour costs” in the statistical database at https://andmed.stat.ee/en/stat.
10.4. Microdata access	The dissemination of data collected for the purpose of producing official statistics is guided by the requirements provided for in § 33, § 34, § 35, § 36, § 38 of the Access to microdata and anonymisation of microdata are regulated by Statistics Estonia’s procedure for dissemination of confidential data for scientific purposes.
10.5. Other	Not used
10.6. Documentation on methodology	Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 of 9 March 1999 concerning structural statistics on earnings and on labour costs Commission Regulation (EC) No 1726/1999 of 27 July 1999 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 concerning structural statistics on earnings and on labour costs as regards the definition and transmission of information on labour costs Commission Regulation (EC) No 1737/2005 of 21 October 2005 amending Regulation (EC) No 1726/1999 as regards the definition and transmission of information on labour costs Commission Regulation (EC) No 698/2006 of 5 May 2006 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 as regards quality evaluation of structural statistics on labour costs and earnings
10.7. Quality documentation	Quality report submitted to Eurostat Data on the population, sample and respondents and error estimates are published in the Statistical Database.

11. Quality management

11.1. Quality assurance	To assure the quality of processes and products, Statistics Estonia applies the EFQM Excellence Model, the European Statistics Code of Practice and the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (ESS QAF). Statistics Estonia is also guided by the requirements in § 7. “Principles and quality criteria of producing official statistics” of the Official Statistics Act.
11.2. Quality assessment	Only fully consistent data are published.

12. Relevance

12.1. User needs

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications

The Government of the Republic

Ministries

12.2. User satisfaction

Since 1996, Statistics Estonia has conducted reputation and user satisfaction surveys. All results are available on the website of Statistics Estonia in the section User surveys.

12.3. Completeness

In compliance with the rules (regulations)

13. Accuracy and reliability

13.1. Overall accuracy	The type of survey and the data collection methods ensure sufficient coverage and timeliness.
13.2. Sampling error	The error due to probability sampling is estimated for all published indicators.
13.3. Non-sampling error	Eurostat and the national statistical institutes try to reduce non-sampling errors through continuous methodological and survey process improvements.

14. Timeliness and punctuality

14.1. Timeliness	Preliminary data are published at the latest within 547 days of the end of the reference period (T + 547).
14.2. Punctuality	The data have been published at the time announced in the release calendar.

15. Coherence and comparability

15.1. Comparability - geographical	The definitions and classifications used in Estonia comply with international definitions and classifications ensuring international comparability of the data.
15.2. Comparability - over time	The data are comparable over time since 2012.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain	Labour cost statistics are closely related to other statistics in the same field. Coherence issues (differences in coverage, definitions and/or methodology) need to be taken into account when comparing data related to the same variables from different sources (wages and salaries survey, survey of economic indicators, national accounts, labour cost survey).
15.4. Coherence - internal	The outputs of the statistical activity are coherent. The higher-level aggregate data are calculated on the basis of detailed data according to calculation rules.

16. Cost and burden

–

17. Data revision

17.1. Data revision - policy	The data revision policy and notification of corrections are described in the section Principles of dissemination of official statistics of the website of Statistics Estonia.
17.2. Data revision - practice	The published data may be revised if the methodology is modified, errors are discovered, new or better data become available.

18. Statistical processing

18.1. Source data	SURVEY DATA Total population is 76,000 objects. The sample includes 10,000 objects. All statistical units with 50 and more employees are surveyed. For enterprises with less than 50 employees, stratified simple random sampling by 2-digit code of economic activity (EMTAK) and size group of enterprise is used. ADMINISTRATIVE DATA Administrative data from the Estonian Tax and Customs Board are used. DATA FROM OTHER STATISTICAL ACTIVITIES Data from survey “Wages and Salaries” (21101) are used.
18.2. Frequency of data collection	Over four years
18.3. Data collection	Data are collected and the submission of questionnaires is monitored through eSTAT (the web channel for electronic data submission). The questionnaires have been designed for independent completion in eSTAT and include instructions and controls. The questionnaires and information about data submission are available on the website of Statistics Estonia in the section Questionnaires. Since 2016, the data are pre-filled with administrative data and data of statistical activity “Wages and salaries” (21101). Data are collected with the official statistics questionnaire “Labour costs”.
18.4. Data validation	Arithmetic and qualitative controls are used in the validation process, including checking that the population coverage and response rates are as required, comparison with the data of previous periods or other surveys and with administrative data sources.
18.5. Data compilation	After data review, the data of non-responding enterprises are replaced within the completely enumerated part of the population. For estimating population totals, the sample data are grossed up separately in each stratum. The expansion factor is the ratio of each subpopulation to the number of respondents in that stratum. After that, the aggregate indicators are calculated.
18.6. Adjustment	Not applicable

19. Comments

Not available