Employment Indicators 

The Employment Indicators presented here provide a snapshot of employment in the private sector based on the World Bank Enterprise Surveys data. Four main indicators are included, each focusing on the stock of (and changes in) aggregate permanent, full-time employment. These indicators are: Employment Share, Employment Expansion, Employment Contraction, and Net Employment Change. Indicators of employment expansion, contraction, and net change are based on the information provided by incumbent firms through variables l1 (the number of full-time, permanent employees working in the establishment in the last completed fiscal year) and l2 (the number of full-time, permanent employees working in the establishment two fiscal years before the survey). The Employment Share is solely based on l1.

Employment Share measures the share of the aggregate stock of permanent, full-time employment across selected firm characteristics (e.g. small versus large, manufacturing versus services, female-owned versus male-owned, etc.). It shows how the total aggregate employment in an economy’s private sector is distributed across these groups of firms.

Employment Expansion measures the annual rate of expansion of the aggregate stock of permanent, full-time employment. It takes firms that, on net, expanded their employment and computes the yearly growth rate in the aggregate stock of permanent, full-time employment.

Employment Contraction measures the annual rate of contraction of the aggregate stock of permanent, full-time employment. It takes firms that, on net, reduced their employment and computes the yearly rate of contraction in the aggregate stock of permanent, full-time employment.

Net Employment Change measures the annual rate of net change in the aggregate stock of permanent, full-time employment. It takes all firms and computes net change of the aggregate stock, i.e. employment expansion less employment contraction. Note that this indicator is different from the Annual Employment Growth, a performance indicator which measures average firm-level growth in permanent, full-time employment.

Note that employment expansion and contraction indicators are similar to job creation and destruction indicators often presented in the literature on jobs with an important distinction that the latter pair accounts for firms’ exit and entry while the former pair does not.

More details about the Employment Indicators are discussed in Aga, Francis, and Rodriguez Meza (2015), which investigates what type of firms are key employers and which firm characteristics are related to faster rates of job creation or contraction. The authors used methods similar to Haltiwanger, Jarmin, and Miranda (2013) who, using U.S census data, identified common pitfalls in measuring the contribution to aggregate job creation and destruction by firms of various characteristics.

The Employment Indicators will be continuously updated to include newly completed Enterprise Surveys. The status of the ongoing Enterprise Surveys can be found on the current projects page. All raw survey datasets are available in the data portal. The Enterprise Analysis Unit appreciates your feedback. Please email us with your comments or questions.

Download Employment Indicators (Excel, 1.40 MB)