The labour cost variables in the building of the “Frame SBS”

The building of the new Structural Business Statistics (SBS) Register (so called Frame) exploits company accounts and en terprise level fiscal data as main sources concerning the variables on revenues and costs. When dealing with labour cost variables an additional source is available: social security data. There are advantages and disadvantages in the use of social security data to feed the variables on wages and labour costs into the frame. In fact, while being heterodox with the main sources, their use has the advantage to introduce consistency with employment data entering the Frame via the business register. This work reports the findings obtained trying to answer questions like: which is the most suitable source to comply with SBS definitions on wages and labour costs? What are the magnitudes and characteristics of discrepancies between sources? What are the causes of these differences? The main reasons of differences have been identified through an in-depth study of the definitions of administrative variables and comparative analyses between sources,at both the macro and micro level. The solution proposed for the Frame involves an innovative correction procedure using social security data to reduce the definitional bias in company accounts due to the inclusion of costs related to external workers into the labour cost.