Data quality, concepts and methodology: Methodology
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Target population
The target population is composed of all employers in Canada, except those primarily involved in agriculture, fishing and trapping, private household services, religious organisations and the military personnel of the defence services. SEPH draws its samples from the Business Register (BR) maintained by the Business Register Division of Statistics Canada and from a list of all businesses registered in Canada Revenue Agency's (CRA) Business Number program with one or more active payroll deduction accounts.
The Business Register is a list of all businesses in Canada and is updated each month using data from various surveys, business profiling and administrative data. The Business number is a unique identifier assigned by CRA to business participating in one or more of the following programs: Payroll Deduction, Goods and Services Tax, Importer and Exporter Tax and Corporation Tax. The payroll deduction source includes all employers with remittances for employee income taxes, CPP/QPP and Employment Insurance contributions.
The statistics contained in this publication are based on:
- a census of administrative records for all employers' establishments that are in-scope for the survey and are present on the Business Register. The monthly payroll and employment estimates are derived from the administrative source.
- a sample survey "Business Payrolls Survey (BPS)" conducted monthly to collect data required to estimate SEPH variables not available on administrative records. The estimates derived from the administrative source are combined with the results of the BPS to produce estimates for the full range of SEPH variables.
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