Quarterly

Data collection is by post and via the internet over a period that extends from the end of the month preceding the survey month to the survey publication date.

Survey results are sent to the European Commission in April and November, 4 business days before the end of the month.

The collection period runs from the end of the month preceding the reference month of the survey to the date of publication of the results (between the 20th and 25th of the month following the reference month).

Survey of a sample of about 4,000 industrial enterprises with 20 employees or more. The sampling frame is an administrtative referentiel of firms. Strata are defined according to econonomic activity and number of employees.

All enterprises with at least 500 employees of turnover of €150 million euros are surveyed. For the other strata, the sample is produced by stratified sampling without replacement, using an allocation proportional to turnover.

About 4,000 units

The survey is conducted every quarter but not all questions are asked every quarter.

In practice, three models of questionnaires were created to take into account these specificities:
- the first questionnaire corresponds to the months of January and July;
- the second one is sent in April;
- the last one in October.