Full-time equivalents (FTEs)
While head counts can be very useful workforce information, they are an incomplete measure of workforce supply.
Full-time equivalents (FTEs) are a more useful measure of workforce supply because they take into account the number of hours worked by a workforce.
The number of FTE workers equals the number of workers multiplied by their average hours worked each week, divided by the number of hours in a standard full-time working week.
FTE = Number of workers X Average weekly hours
Standard week
Standard working weeks may vary between occupations, which means the standard working weeks can also vary when calculating FTEs (e.g. 35, 38 or 40 hours per week).
FTEs can also be adjusted for population to allow workforce supply comparisons between geographic regions and time periods with different population sizes.
FTE rate = FTE X 100,000
Population