Background Notes

Industrial Production, Distribution and Services Provisional Data

Provisional Data 2017

The data in this release are taken from the Annual Services Inquiry 2017 (ASI) and the Census of Industrial Production 2017 (CIP), which are compulsory surveys conducted under the Statistics (Structural Business Inquiries) Order 2017 (S.I. No. 572 of 2017), made under the Statistics Act 1993 and Regulation (EC) No 295. of 2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning structural business statistics.

Appreciation is extended to firms that co-operate in these surveys. The information they provide is treated as strictly confidential to the Central Statistics Office. Direct or indirect disclosure of information relating to individual respondents is avoided in the publication of results by combining categories containing small numbers of units and suppressing figures, etc.

The individual Surveys are conducted as follows

Annual Services Inquiry

The Annual Services Inquiry (ASI) has been conducted on annual basis since 1991. The purpose of the survey is to provide grossed estimates of the principal trading aggregates for all enterprises in the retail, wholesale, transportation and storage, accommodation and food, information and communication, real estate, professional, scientific, technical, administrative and other selected services sectors. 

Legislation

The Annual Services Inquiry is a compulsory survey conducted under the Statistics (Structural Business Inquiries) Order 2017 (S.I. No. 572 of 2017), made under the Statistics Act 1993 and Regulation (EC) No. 295 of 2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning structural business statistics.

Central Business Register

The CSO’s Central Business Register provides the sampling frame from which the Annual Services Inquiry sample is selected each year. The Central Business Register is also used as the basis for the sampling frame used to gross sample data to the population. The Business Register is updated continuously throughout the year.

Sample Design

The ASI is designed to provide grossed estimates of the principal trading aggregates for all enterprises in the relevant sectors. The ‘enterprise’ is the unit used for survey purposes i.e. one return is sought in respect of each enterprise covering all constituent branches, local units or subsidiaries. The sample is selected based on the number of persons engaged in the enterprise i.e. number of proprietors plus number of full-time and part-time staff. A census of enterprises with 20 or more persons engaged is conducted. In addition a stratified random sample is selected for the enterprises with less than 20 persons engaged, with decreasing sampling proportions taken in the lower persons engaged ranges. 

All enterprises with 1 or more persons engaged are included in the survey frame. However, the units with 1 person engaged are not surveyed; the data for these are imputed directly from administrative data sources.

Grossing 

Collected and edited data for companies with 2 or more persons engaged is aggregated using ratio estimators (a general estimator for the population total). Number of Persons Engaged is known for all members of the population and used as an auxiliary parameter for all monetary and employment variables. 

Horvitz-Thomson estimator is used for number of enterprises and number of local units. 

This process results in assigning every company on the final dataset two grossing factors (weights) dependent on the NACE code and employment size class . The underlying assumption in the ratio estimator strategy is that a variable of interest (e.g. turnover) and the auxiliary parameter (employment) are linearly connected. Units, for which this assumption is strongly violated (outliers), are identified and adjusted if necessary. 

The data for units with 1 person engaged is imputed from administrative data sources directly, where possible. Variables that are not available, such as capital acquisitions and disposals, are modelled using linear regressions from respondents with 2 to 9 persons engaged. Horvitz-Thomson estimator is used to gross the data to account for units which have no administrative data available.

Number of Persons Engaged includes all full time and part-time employees. It also includes proprietors, partners and family members who work for an enterprise. It excludes agency workers.

Census of Industrial Production

The Census of Industrial Enterprises covers those enterprises which are wholly or primarily engaged in industrial production and have three or more persons engaged. 

The Census of Industrial Production is required under Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97. The 2017 Census was taken in accordance with S.I. No. 572/2017.  

An enterprise is defined as the smallest combination of legal units that is an organisational unit producing goods or services, which benefits from a certain degree of autonomy in decision making, especially for the allocation of its current resources. 

Period Covered by the Census

Although the Census relates in principle to the calendar year, respondents are permitted to return figures for their nearest accounting year.  The end of the accounting year for all returns used falls between May of the reference year and April of the following year.  Returns which cover a period of less than 12 months are accepted in cases where businesses have started or ceased trading during the year. 

All employment details in the 2017 Census are based of the average employment reported on the enterprise’s P35. 

Data Collection 

The Census is conducted by post and electronic data collection.  A permanent up-to-date register is kept of all relevant  enterprises involved in industrial production.  The register is maintained from the Central Business Register, administrative and public utility records, announcements in the press, business journals, etc. This register is constantly being updated.  This results in differing estimates for the total number of enterprises through the dissemination cycle. 

An ‘enterprise’ questionnaire is sent to all enterprises whose activity is primarily industrial.  The type of ‘enterprise’ questionnaire depends on the size of the enterprise.  The most detailed form (form F) is generally sent to all enterprises with twenty or more persons engaged.  A less detailed form (form C) is sent to enterprises with between three and twenty persons engaged.

All forms are available on CSO’s website at 

http://www.cso.ie/surveysandmethodologies/surveyforms/indus_production.htm

All returns are scrutinised clerically for internal accuracy.  They are compared with returns for previous years and in some instances with returns to other industrial inquiries.  A further set of consistency checks are carried out in the computer processing of the data.  Substantial queries arising from these scrutiny operations are referred to the respondent by telephone or in writing.

NACE Classification 

NACE refers to the classification NACE Revision 2 which is the European Union’s Statistical Classification of Economic Activity in the European communities.

For further information on the NACE Rev. 2 classification of industrial activity, visit the CSO website:

http://www.cso.ie/en/surveysandmethodology/classifications/

The traditional category Transportable Goods Industries used in industrial statistics is equivalent to NACE sections B and C.  The Manufacturing Industries grouping includes only section C.

NACE Rev. 2 Classification

NACE Rev. 2 is the statistical classification of economic activities. NACE is an acronym for ‘Nomenclature Généraile des Activités Économiques dans les Communautés Européenes’ (General Industrial Classification of Economic Activities within the European Communities).

The information presented in this report covers the industry, distributive trade and services (excl Financials). 

The following highlights the composition of these sectors in this report

Broad Structure of NACE Rev. 2        

Industry     Section B – Mining and quarrying

                   Section C - Manufacturing

                   Section D – Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply

                   Section E - Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities

Distributive Trade     Section G - Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles

Services     Section H - Transportation and storage

                   Section I - Accommodation and food service activities

                  Section J - Information and communication

                  Section L - Real estate activities

                  Section M - Professional, scientific and technical activities

                  Section N - Administrative and support service activities

                  Section R - Arts, entertainment and recreation

                  Section S - Other service activities

Financial and insurance activities Section K - Financial and insurance activities are excluded from this report. 

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