TECHNICAL NOTES AND DEFINITIONS
Covered Employment is a monthly count of full and
part-time employees, who earned wages during the pay period which includes the
12th of the month, as reported quarterly by employers covered by the New Jersey
Unemployment Compensation Law.
Basically, any employer paying at least $1,000 in wages in the current
or preceding calendar year is covered.
Jobs not covered by the law fall mainly into the categories of
self-employed and unpaid family workers or certain agricultural and in-home
domestic workers.
For a more detailed description of the exclusions to
covered employment, refer to the appendix on page 103.
Since the data represent the aggregate number of jobs
reported by individual employers at the workplace, the total job count does not
necessarily correspond with the number of actual persons holding jobs.
In the case of workers employed by more than one covered
employer during the reference period, a slight overcount in workers will
exist. Conversely, during the course of
a year, there may be more workers than jobs due to turnover.
Companies, Establishments, and Units
The data in this publication are tabulated on an
establishment or unit, as opposed to a company, basis. The terms "establishment" and
"unit", for purposes of this publication, should be considered
synonymous. An establishment or unit,
as defined in the 1987 Standard Industrial Classification Manual, is an
economic unit, generally at a single physical location, where business is
conducted or where services or industrial operations are performed. A company is a legal entity which, in many
cases, is comprised of several physical locations or establishments.
To the extent possible, the data are collected and
tabulated on an establishment basis for those companies having more than one
establishment or unit operating in New Jersey.
Reporting and data collection difficulties sometimes present problems in
adequately distributing the data for the individual establishments of
multi-location companies.
PAGE 100
Geographical and Industrial Coding
Based on information furnished by employers covered by New
Jersey Unemployment Insurance Law, each account is assigned a Standard
Industrial Classification (SIC) code and a municipality code. The SIC code, which is based on the Office
of Management and Budget's 1987 Standard Industrial Classification Manual,
specifies the primary business activity of the firm. The municipality code designates the physical worksite. This coding allows for the distribution of
data by industry at the county or municipality level.
Undistributed Data
Employer data that could not be assigned to a specific
area of the state are labeled "undistributed" in the area tables.
Included in this category are statewide sales jobs and promotional agents;
service and route persons; short-term contractual workers; and all other
covered workers whose place of work could not be precisely determined.
The table starting on page
90 shows the industry breakdown of those undistributed jobs.
Inconsistencies in Historical Series
Before undertaking any analysis of covered employment
data, users should consider the impact that legal and definitional changes,
Standard Industrial Classification Manual changes, imperfect employer input and
confidentiality provisions have on the data.
Moreover, since covered employment data are collected primarily for unemployment
tax administration purposes, no attempt is made to revise previously released
data.
The New Jersey laws defining covered employment have been
amended on several occasions. A
significant change occurred in 1969 when coverage was expanded to include employers
with one or more employees rather than four or more employees. This change increased the number of covered
reporting units by approximately 64 percent and added approximately 6.5 percent
to covered employment totals. In 1972,
non-profit organizations meeting similar requirements were extended coverage
and in 1978, virtually all state and local government workers and certain
domestic and agricultural workers were added to covered employment.
In May 1981, all employees of elementary and secondary schools operating
under a church charter were dropped from UI coverage. This change resulted in a loss of approximately 10,000 jobs and
500 units in educational service between September 1980 and September 1981.
PAGE 101
Another inconsistency is introduced by periodic changes in
industry codes. The Standard Industrial
Classification (SIC) Manual used to code business activities has been revised
on five occasions since 1941. Beginning
with 1988, covered employment statistics are classified under definitions established
with the 1987 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Manual, and may not be
strictly comparable to data for prior periods.
Confidentiality Provisions
Because the release of data identifiable to individual
employers or employing establishments is generally prohibited, data are not
published for industries with less than three employing units or where one
employing unit comprises 80 percent or more of the industry, regardless of the
total number of units. The impact of
the confidentiality provision is normally felt only at the municipality level,
although entire industries may be affected.
PAGE 102