Outline
This chapter is concerned with labor force, employment, labor productivity, occupational injuries, labor disputes and labor unions. The manpower resource survey, conducted once a month, and the week containing the fifteenth day of a month is set as the reference week. The survey covers all the population of age 15 or over who are engaged in economic activities in Taiwan Area (Kinmen County and Lienchiang County excluded), but excludes those in active military services and in prison. Everyone is classified into only one of the following three slots; employment, unemployment, or not in labor force. Where a person in employment has more than one job, the job occupying the longest working time in the reference week is counted as his job. The survey adopts the two-stage stratified sampling method with the basic administration unit of Tsun or Li as the first stage sampling unit and the household as the second stage sampling unit.
In the employees' earnings survey, unless otherwise specified, the number of employees on payroll at the end of a month is collected while earning, working hours and turnover of employees at the end of each month during a year. The employees' earnings, working hours, accession and separation are monthly data multiply the number of employees of the month. Then calculate the 12-month weighted average. The object of this survey are public and private firms and their employees in Taiwan Area (Kinmen County and Lienchiang County excluded), excluding the factories owned by the Ministry of National Defense, consumers cooperatives, workshops of schools, relief institutions and prisons. In the survey period, if a surveyed worker has two jobs, these two jobs will both be counted, a way different from that for the manpower resource survey. The survey adopts both of the complete investigation approach and the cut-off stratified random sampling approach which uses the Dalenius-Hodges approximate optimum method for stratum division and the Neyman optimum Allocation for allocation of samples in each stratum. The survey is conducted in accordance with the 8th revision of Standard Industrial Classification of the Republic of China.
Labor force -- It is defined as those civilians who, during the reference week, are 15 years of age or over and who are available to work, including both the employed and the unemployed. The employed population comprise all the persons who, during the reference week, work for pay or work for 15 hours or more as unpaid family workers. The unemployed population comprise all the persons who, during the reference week, are 15 years of age or over and under the following conditions: (1) jobless, (2) available to work, (3)seeking a job or waiting for results after job seeking. Besides, the unemployed population also includes the persons who are waiting to recall or start a new job but not working and paid yet.
Not in Labor Force -- The category comprises those civilians who during the reference week are 15 years or over and not in labor force, including the persons who intend to work but not seeking for , attending schools, being engaged in housekeeping, aged, disabled, or with some other reasons so that unemployed and not seeking for a job.
Number of Employees -- The employees refer to those on payroll at the end of a month, including full-time and part-time workers, permanent workers, temporary workers under projects, contract workers, students working under cooperation programs between industries and schools (excluding those who do not work for a full month), and apprentices with pay. Also included those who are temporarily on leave, such as going abroad on official trip, training, transfer, military training, education, illness, vacation, marriage, and child delivery. However, excluded are: (1) employers participating the operation without pay, own-account workers, and unpaid family workers, (2) members of boards of directors, supervisors and advisors not actually participating the operation, (3) those drafted for military service with partial pay, without participating in operation for the entire month, (4) contracted workers outside the factories and paid by piece of work.
Earnings of Employees -- The earnings of an employee are composed of the following three categories: (1) Regular earnings: It refers to regular rewards paid to employees every month. Included in the regular earnings are basic pay, regular allowance and awards such as housing allowance, transportation allowance, free meals, free water and electricity, regularly (production, good job-rating, good sales, etc.) performance awards, full attendance award, etc. Pay in kind should be converted into value at the current prices. The regular earnings should include payable income tax, insurance premium and labor union fees. (2) Over time pay: it refers to the rewards paid for employees working overtime. (3) Other irregular earnings: Included are performance awards, full attendance award, year-end bonus, bonus for Dragon Festival and/or other festivals, official trip per diems, and job transfer allowance.
Productivity -- The productivity data can be classified into labor productivity, capital productivity, and multi-factor productivity. This chapter includes only the labor productivity measured by value of output which is specifically defined as the real value of output produced by an employee within a unit of time. It is derived by dividing the total input into the total output. The real gross domestic product (GDP) as shown in the national income product account (NIPA) is the output while the working hours of an employee, derived jointly from the manpower resource survey and the employees’ earnings survey, are the input. Information and compilation methods for labor productivity measured by quantum of output and multi-factor productivity, please see the Trends in Labor Productivity and the Trends in Multi-factor Productivity all published by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan.
Labor Union -- The number of labor unions refers to the total of labor union federation, industrial labor unions, and trade (occupational labor) unions. The industrial labor union refers to a union organized within an industry and composed of workers of different occupations. The trade union refers to a labor union organized by workers of a specific occupation. The labor union federation refers to an organization formed by several industrial labor unions and/or trade unions. For information on operation and activities of labor unions, please refer to the Yearbook of Labor Statistics published by the Council of Labor Affairs.
