Outline of Monthly Survey on Service Industries

The Statistics Bureau of Japan (SBJ) launched the Monthly Survey on Service Industries in July 2008. The survey is conducted in order to grasp the monthly sales(income) and employment data for major service industries.

Background

Examining changes in the industrial structure in Japan, the tertiary industry’s shares of both GDP and employees have gradually risen, exceeding 70 percent in fiscal year 2006. However, no statistical surveys have covered the entire range of service sectors. Therefore, there is a need for a survey to measure the changes in sales(income) and persons working at the location for service industries, so that the government can formulate appropriate economic policies.

Survey objective

The main aim of the survey is to provide the best possible monthly estimates of sales(income)s and persons working at the location for service industries and to enhance the accuracy of economic indicators such as Quarterly Estimates (QE) of GDP.

Sample and Survey Methodology

About 39,000 establishments in service industries are asked to complete questionnaires every month.

　(1) The questionnaires are sent by mail to about 29,000 establishments with 10 or more persons working at the location.

　(2) The questionnaires are delivered by enumerators to about 10,000 establishments with fewer than 10 persons working at the location.

 　The questionnaires delivered to the respondents are paper-based, but it can be modified into a web-based questionnaire at the request of respondents.

Industries to be surveyed

• Info-communications
• Transport and postal activities
• Real estate and goods rental and leasing
• Scientific research and professional and technical services
• Accommodation, eating and drinking services
• Living-related and amusement services
• Education, learning support
• Medical, health care and welfare
• Service, N.E.C.(not elsewhere classified)

Types of Questionnaires and Survey Items

（1）Types of Questionnaires

　A “Questionnaire for the first month” is used at the beginning of the survey while a “Monthly questionnaire” is used from the second month.

（2）Survey Items

　a) Types of legal organizations and amounts of capital（first month only）

　b) Categories of main business activities of establishments（first month only）

　c) sales(income) （monthly）

　d) Number of persons working at the location by status in employment at the end of business day of each month（monthly）

Implementation and Tabulation of the Survey

SBJ entrusts the implementation of the survey to the following 2 Joint Ventures:

• Survey Research Center and Intage Research Joint Venture
• Nikkei Research and Yamato Transport Joint Venture,

and the tabulation to the National Statistics Center.

Release of the Survey Results

The survey results are scheduled to be released two months after the survey month.

The results are published on reports and shown on the SBJ website.