Quality project regional GVA and employment Results so far 19 October 2005 Bas de Vet Consultant b.vet@casema.nl

Contents of the presentation Introduction Results for regional GVA Results for regional employment Conclusions Recommendations Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005 Introduction Quality project covered the period 2001-2005 Total quality project included: Regional GVA Regional GFCF Regional employment Regional population Regional unemployment CEIES-indicators Presentation is limited to the quality review of regional GVA and employment Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005 Availability of quality reports and methodologies concerning GVA of the old EU-15 2001-2002 Countries Quality report Metho-dology Remark Austria (AT) April 2002 Joint report together with GFCF and employment. Belgium (BE) Feb. 2002 June 2002 Methodological information is only available in Dutch. Denmark (DK) Dec. 2001 Finland (FI) Joint report together with GFCF. France (FR) Oct. 2002 Methodology is only in French. Germany (DE) Jan. 2002 Greece (GR) July 2002 Dec. 2002 Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005 Availability of quality reports and methodologies concerning GVA of the old EU-15 2001-2002 Countries Quality report Metho-dology Remark Ireland (IE) Not available. Italy (IT) Netherlands (NL) Dec. 2001 May 2001 Portugal (PT) Feb. 2002 Methodology is not available. Spain (ES) May 2002 June 2002 Sweden (SE) Joint report together with GFCF and employment. United Kingdom (UK) March 2001 Methodology is an update of the screening report. The quality report has still to be revised. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005 Availability of QR and methodologies GVA of the new MS and CC 2004-2005  Countries Availability Pages methodology 1 BG Yes 10 2 CZ 3 EE 16 4 HU 5 LT 6 LV 48 7 PL 8 RO 9 SK SL Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005 Availability of quality reports and methodologies regional employment of the EU-15 2001-2002 Countries Quality report Metho-dology Remark Austria (AT) April 2002 Joint report together with GFCF and GVA. Belgium (BE) Feb. 2002 Methodology is not available. Denmark (DK) Dec. 2001 March 2002 Finland (FI) France (FR) Not available. Germany (DE) Jan. 2002 May 2002 Methodological note dates back to March 2001 and is in German. Greece (GR) July 2002 Methodology is not available Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005 Availability of quality reports and methodologies regional employment of the EU-15 2001-2002 Countries Quality report Metho-dology Remark Ireland (IE) Not available. Italy (IT) Netherlands (NL) Jan. 2002 Feb. 2002 Portugal (PT) May 2002 A short methodology is available. Spain (ES) June 2002 Methodological note is available. Sweden (SE) Joint report together with GFCF and GVA. United Kingdom (UK) Methodology is not available. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005 Availability of quality reports and methodologies concerning regional employment regarding the last wave of 2004 (EU-15) Countries Quality report Metho-dology Remark Austria (AT) No update. Belgium (BE) No update and no changes in the methods. Methodology is not yet available. Denmark (DK) Nov. 2004 No update of the methodology. Finland (FI) Feb. 2005 France (FR) Methodology is not available. Germany (DE) Methodological note is in German. Greece (GR) Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005 Availability of quality reports and methodologies concerning regional employment regarding the last wave of 2004 (EU-15) Countries Quality report Metho-dology Remark Ireland (IE) Not available. Italy (IT) Netherlands (NL) No update and no changes in methods. Portugal (PT) Dec. 2004 Methodology is not available. Spain (ES) Sweden (SE) Feb. 2005 United Kingdom (UK) Questions about the response. We still expect an answer. Methodology is not available. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005 Availability of quality reports on regional employment at 31 March 2005 (new MS and CC) Countries Available information / remarks Bulgaria Draft quality report available Methodology description included in annex of QR Czech Republic Methodology description document available Estonia Draft quality report available. LFS Quality Report included as methodology description Hungary Latvia Lithuania Poland Romania No draft quality report available Slovak Republic Slovenia Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Main conclusions availability regional GVA There are no quality reports and methodologies regarding regional GVA available for Ireland and Italy. There is no methodology available for Portugal. United Kingdom still has to revise the quality report. The new MS and CC provided as well quality reports as methodologies Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Main conclusions for methods used to compile regional GVA The production method is the main method used by almost all countries. The enterprise appears to be the most common unit in the regionalisation process. All reporting countries use mixed methods. That implies the use of ancillary variables for as well multi-regional, small units as for some activities. For this point the choice of indicators is a very relevant point. Quantitative information about non response, coverage of units and the testing of assumptions is missing for a large number of countries. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Recommendations for the compilation of regional GVA The methodology and quality review in the form of process tables should become part of a Regulation, comparable to the GNI-Regulation[1]. The contents of the methodologies and quality reviews as well as the frequency of the updates should be decided on. [1] Council Regulation (EC, EURATOM) No 1287/2003 of 15 July 2003 on the harmonisation of gross national income at market prices (GNI Regulation). Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Recommendations for the compilation of regional GVA For multi-regional enterprise collecting the following data: hours worked (because of the new ESA-regulation), compensation of employees and consumption of fixed capital at NUTS-3 (or NUTS-5). Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Recommendations for the compilation of regional GVA Quantitative information should become available at the regional level for non response, coverage of units and the testing of assumptions. If possible should alternative methods be used for checking the accuracy of the currently used methods. Process tables should become an integral part of the compilation process. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Main conclusions availability regional employment For both waves of quality reviews, Italy and Ireland did not provide a quality report on regional employment. Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain did not provide an update of their 2002 reports. There seems to be a certain resistance among NSIs to update the reports after a relatively short time (in this case about two years). In due time it appears to be possible to provide regional data about hours worked. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Main conclusions for methods used to compile regional employment Total employed persons and employees are in principle the variables to be assessed. However some countries provide information about jobs and one country about full time equivalents. The level of detail (by branches) varies strongly between 9 branches and 233 branches. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Recommendations for the compilation of regional employment to get more coherence of the regional data about labour from different sources (employed persons, jobs, hours worked, full time equivalents, compensation of employees, mixed income, unemployment, labour force, employees and self-employed, commuting), it is recommended to develop a system of regional labour accounts. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

General conclusions co-operation The experiences with the quality projects show that these projects, though important, do not always get the desired priority. This is due to the fact that the work to be done is considered as “ad hoc” and has to be incorporated in the current work programme. As a result, some quality reports and methodologies have not been delivered. The results for the second quality review of regional employment show a relatively low response. The received reactions from the Member States indicate two main reasons for this. The first reason is that the workload is too high. And the second is that there are no major changes compared to the previous assessment. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Recommendation co-operation The quality reviews should be part of a quality programme. Because of the importance of the assessed statistics, an EU-regulation based programme is recommended. This regulation should at least contain or refer to the topics for quality review, the detail of the quality assessment, the periodicity and the organisation of the assessments. It is recommended to install a taskforce to prepare proposals for the periodicity of revisions of the regional accounts and other regional indicators, the periodicity and detail of the quality reviews and / or the methodologies. For instance, the “Gross national income inventory (ESA 95)” for the Netherlands contains 428 pages. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

Conclusion and recommendation transparency The process tables prove to be a very good instrument to get a better transparency of the statistical data and because of that a better awareness about the quantitative importance of the statistical problems. Recommendation Install a taskforce for a further development and implementation of the process tables. Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005

End of the presentation Any questions? Working party regional indicators 17-19 October 2005