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Collection of data on employment agency work revised in 2008

As of the beginning of 2008, more precise data than before are collected about temporary employment agency work. In the past, temporary agency workers were classified into the industry of Labour hire activities. Now their activity is determined by the job held during the survey week. All interviewed wage and salary earners are separately asked whether they are temporary employment agency workers.

The change of the classification has a relatively minor impact on the comparability of the data on industry, because temporary employment agency workers are dispersed among several industries and their number in any single industry group is small. The change has the clearest impact on the activity of 'Labour recruitment and provision of personnel' (745). The impact from the change of classification is partly also alleviated by the fact that as the data have been based on the interviewee's own reporting, a proportion of temporary agency workers may have gone unobserved in the past, in other words their industry was already classified in accordance with this revised method.

More precise reporting on the numbers of temporary agency workers and their distribution among industries will become possible in 2009 once data covering the whole of 2008 become available, i.e. the sample size is of sufficient magnitude.

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Last updated 1.7.2008