Monthly Survey of Employment, Payroll and Orders-on-hand (2)
declined slightly in the recent months, it was still above the corresponding level in the same period last year.
5.2
Based on the views obtained from contacts with
local industrialists as well as on the results of the
(3) Quarterly Business Survey conducted in July 1986, some
qualitative assessments of the latest developments in the manufacturing sector can be made. First, manufacturers in general remained
remained optimistic about export prospects in the near future. Many large factories had sufficient orders for the third and the fourth quarters, while the situation in regard to small factories varied. Second, increased labour costs, shortage of skilled workers, and insufficient technical support to produce hi-tech or high-quality products were amongst the major problems reported by many of the establishments contacted, particularly the smaller ones. Third, the strong recovery in domestic exports has led to a significant improvement in manufacturers' investment intentions, as indicated by a year-on-year increase in real
terms of about 23% in retained imports of industrial machinery for use in the manufacturing sector in the first nine months of this year (paragraph 2.10).
/5.3
(2)
(3)
The Monthly Survey of Employment, Payroll and Orders-on-hand includes 200 large manufacturing companies selected on the basis of the size of employment in March 1983, as well as the 50 largest companies in the construction and selected services sectors. Each month a questionnaire is sent by the Census and Statistics Department to each of these companies, requesting information on the number of persons engaged as at the end of the reference month, on the amount of payroll for the reference month, on orders-on-hand in terms of months as at the first day of the following month, and on the number of days worked per week and normal working hours per day of operatives during the last full week of the reference month. Its purpose is to provide short-term economic indicators at monthly intervals. As the survey is not based on a scientifically selected random sample, the results do not necessarily reflect the performance of the economy as a whole, but they do give some indication of the direction of change.
The Quarterly Business Survey conducted by the Census and Statistics Department seeks from respondents their impression of business conditions in the preceding quarter and their
their opinion regarding business prospects in the forthcoming quarter. The sample used for the survey consists of some 1 000 firms drawn from various sectors. It is a selection of the largest firms plus a random sample of the medium-sized firms in each sector.
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