employment,
payroll and
orders-on-hand
(2)
/
on retained
imports of raw materials and semi-manufactures (paragraph 2.14), and on the quantity of electricity
electricity consumed by the industrial sector (paragraph 5.21), manufacturing activity picked up considerably in March and the recovery continued into the second quarter of 1986.
5.3
of
the
latest
Some qualitative assessment
developments in the manufacturing industry can be made based
on the views obtained from general contacts with local
industrialists, as well as on the results of the Quarterly
(3) Business Survey
conducted in April 1986. First, most manufacturing industries reported improvements in their order-book positions. Second, manufacturers in general have
/become
...
(2)
The monthly survey on employment, payroll and orders-on-hand includes 200 large manufacturing companies selected on the basis of employment in March 1983, in addition
in addition to the 50
50 largest companies in the construction and selected services sectors. Each month a question- naire is sent 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 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.
(3) The Quarterly Business Surveys conducted by the Census and Statistics Department seek from respondents their impression of business conditions in the immediately preceding quarter and their opinion regarding business prospects in the forthcoming quarter. The sample used for the survey consists of some 1 000 firms taken from various sectors. It is a selection of the largest firms in each sector plus a random sample of medium sized firms.
40
4