% in 2011. If the employee enjoys free board or this is included in the price of the ticket on any travelling day, then the per diem allowance shall be half of the amounts referred to above. Free board shall denote two free meals in the case of a full per diem allowance and one free meal in the case of a partial per diem allowance. Implementation regulation: It is of no consequence whether the free board or lodging is arranged for the employee by the employer or by some other party such as the party ordering the work.
% in 2011. This ranks the country among the top ten states with the highest long-term unemployment rate. In 2012 the long-term unemployment rate was 6.8%. The high rates of the unemployment in all of its aspects raise the following challenges: Lack of effective connection between education, qualification and labour demand; Difficult transition from education to the first job due to the lack of work habits of young people; Conditions for improving the coordination between the institutions in the labour market should be created; The effectiveness of the incentives for economic activity (adults, mothers, youths) should be increased; Low labour mobility, unused possibilities for alternative, remote and innovative employment. As regards the supply and demand of workforce in the labour market49, in 2011 there was a temporary reduction in mass redundancies and an unbalanced demand of workforce in terms of both period and sector. In such conditions of limited demand, employment is dependent, on the one hand,on sector identity and level of qualification of the different labour market groups, and on the correspondence between job seekers’ skills and competences and the employers’ requirements, on the other. There is a wide gap between employers’ needs for certain qualifications in workers and the specialists produced by the education system50. More specifically, 64% of the employers need engineering graduates, while only 27% of the students major in such fields. Although much of the labour cuts have already been done, the impact of the unfavourable external environment towards optimizing labour costs, mostly for export-oriented activities, will persist. The internal demand also remains rather low and will continue to have a deterrent effect on the recovery of employment in the service and construction sectors. At the same time, the significant job cuts in these sectors from the beginning of the crisis until 2012 suggest that a delay in the rate of release of labour resources might be expected to occur in 2013. Mediatory recruitment services have a key role in the transition of unemployed people and recent graduates to employment, in reducing unemployment periods, and matching the supply and demand of work in the labour market. The activity of labour offices and other intermediaries in the period after the economic crisis leads to a continuous increase in the number of the unemployed who had secured jobs through the services of a recruitment agency. During the first six months ...
% in 2011. The decreased effective tax rate was primarily due to the non-deductible merger transaction expenses in 2011. Our estimated effective tax rate for 2013 is 37.9%. In 2011, our income tax expense decreased by $15 million or 11% compared to 2010. The decrease was primarily due to lower consolidated earnings as previously discussed. Our effective tax rate was 42.1% in 2011 and 37.5% in 2010. The increased effective tax rate in 2011 was primarily due to non-deductible merger transaction expenses. As a result of the authoritative guidance related to consolidations, income tax expense and our effective tax rate are determined from earnings before income taxes less net income attributable to the noncontrolling interest. For more information on our income taxes, including a reconciliation between the statutory federal income tax rate and our effective tax rate, see Note 12 to our consolidated financial statements under Item 8 herein. Operating metrics Selected weather, customer and volume metrics for 2012, 2011 and 2010, which we consider to be some of the key performance indicators for our operating segments, are presented in the following tables. For the businesses that were acquired from the Nicor merger we only include the 22 days of activity from December 10, 2011 through December 31, 2011. We measure the effects of weather on our business through heating degree days. Generally, increased heating degree days result in greater demand for gas on our distribution systems. However, extended and unusually mild weather during the Heating Season can have a significant negative impact on demand for natural gas in our distribution operations and retail operations segments. Volume metrics for distribution operations and retail operations, as shown in the following table, present the effects of weather and our customers’ demand for natural gas compared to prior year. Our customer metrics highlight the average number of customers to which we provide services. This number of customers can be impacted by natural gas prices, economic conditions and competition from alternative fuels. Wholesale services’ daily physical sales volumes represent the daily average natural gas volumes sold to its customers. Within our midstream operations segment, our natural gas storage businesses seek to have a significant percentage of their working natural gas capacity under firm subscription, but also take into account current and expected market conditions. This allows our natural gas storag...
