Monthly

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, i.e. 4 business days before the end of the current month.

Survey results are sent to the European Commission 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 reference month).

Survey of a sample of 4,000 industrial enterprises with 20 employees or more.

All enterprises with at least 500 employees of turnover of €150 million are surveyed.

4,000 units

The survey is conducted every month but not all questions are asked every month. The survey questionnaires consists of a common core of monthly questions to which are added, depending on the month, some quarterly, biannual or annual questions.  

From the January 2022 campaign:

• introduction of a quarterly question on the probable trend in hourly wages in the sector;

• reintroduction of some quarterly questions about the barriers to hiring, resuming a set of questions asked from January 2017 to July 2020;

• removal of the quarterly questions about the impact of the health crisis on productivity -- that was a set of questions asked from October 2020 to October 2021.

From the April 2022 campaign:

• introduction of an annual question set on investment requested as part of the BCS European survey program.

From the May 2022 campaign:

• introduction of questions on direct or indirect supply difficulties related to the war in Ukraine.

From November 2022 campaign:

• temporary insertion of a module on energy prices.