Certain comparisons between countries, or between industries or sectors within the same economy, become meaningful only when the aggregates in the national accounts (for example, gross domestic product, the final consumption of households, the value-added of an industry, compensation of employees) are considered in relation to the number of inhabitants and labour input variables.It is therefore necessary to have definitions of the total population, employment, jobs, total hours worked, full-time equivalence and employee labour input at constant compensation, which are closely linked to the concepts used in the national accounts.
Nekatere primerjave med državami, dejavnostmi ali sektorji istega gospodarstva so smiselne le, če se agregati nacionalnih računov (npr. bruto domači proizvod, končna potrošnja gospodinjstev, dodana vrednost dejavnosti, sredstva za zaposlene) primerjajo s številom prebivalcev in spremenljivkami inputov dela, zato je treba opredeliti kategorije, ki so tesno povezane s koncepti nacionalnih računov, in sicer celotno prebivalstvo, ekonomsko aktivno prebivalstvo, zaposlenost, zaposlitve, skupaj opravljene ure, ekvivalent polnega delovnega časa in inputi dela zaposlenih v stalnem nadomestilu.