EMCB : Monthly Business Outlook Survey in the Building Industry - 2020

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Data description

The main subjects are:
- the activity: past and future activity, at a whole level, but also by kind of work and by type of clientele (public, private). The business managers are also surveyed on the general perspectives of the sector;
- the order books: the business managers are surveyed on the order books level in months of work; they also compare the level of their order books with the normal situation;
- the cash flow position, the repayment period by type of clientele;
- the production capacity:  the survey concerns the possible obstacles to the increase of the activity, the rate of utilisation of the production capacities;
- the employment: evolution in the staff size, in the last three months  and expected in the next three months. The business managers are also surveyed on the recruitment problems;  
- the investment: some quantitative questions are asked quaterly;
- the expected trend of prices.

Mostly, the questions are qualitative, with three choices. The results are balances of opinion calculated as the difference between the percentage of <<up (+)>> and the percentage of <<down (-)>>.

Sector coverage

The survey covers the sectors defined by the following codes of the French Nomenclature of Activities (NAF rev. 2):
- construction of residential and non-residential buildings (code 41.2);
- electrical, plumbing and other installation work (code 43.2); 
- finishing work (code 43.3);
- other specialized construction work (code 43.9).

Statistical unit

The unit interviewed is the company.

Statistical population

The monthly business outlook survey in the building industry covers companies with 11 employees or more, working on the construction of individual houses and miscellaneous buildings, general building work, roofing, framing, fitting and finishing work.

Reference area

France métropolitaine

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The survey has been conducted quaterly first and monthly since 1993. Until 2007, the survey has occurred each month except in August. Since 2008, it occurrs every month.

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Sample size

2,500 units

Data collection documents

The monthly business outlook survey in the building industry is conducted every month. It includes a quarterly component of a few questions asked in January, April, July and October.

In practice, two models of questionnaires were created to take into account these specificities:
- the monthly questionnaire corresponds to the months of February, March, May, June, September, November and December. This questionnaire contains only the questions at monthly intervals;
- the quarterly questionnaire is sent in January, April, July and October. In addition to monthly questions, it includes questions on a quarterly basis.

• Questionnaire 2020 for January, April, July and October (pdf, fr)
• Questionnaire 2020 for the months of February, March, May, June, August, September, November and December (pdf, fr)

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The French business survey on the situation and outlook in the Building industry : methodology -- Insee Méthodes n ° 115 

https://www.insee.fr/en/information/2579499

Joint harmonised European Union programme of business and consumer surveys

http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/db_indicators/surveys/method_guides/index_en.htm

• Business Tendency Surveys – All Sectors (pdf, en)
• Monthly economic outlook survey in the building industry (pdf, en)

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2020 : https://doi.org/10.34724/CASD.432.4000.V1