FTE and nullfte
From a cited source
FTE, full-time equivalent: a unit for counting employees whose hours differ, so that two half-time staff count as one. nullfte: null FTE, zero full-time-equivalent employees, the question this site began with.
Origin. Eurostat: "a unit to measure employed persons or students in a way that makes them comparable although they may work or study a different number of hours per week". (Eurostat, Glossary: Full-time equivalent (FTE), Eurostat, Statistics Explained, retrieved 18 October 2026)
How I use it. FTE counts employees only. Zero FTE says nothing about the owner's time, contractors or directors.
Not to be confused with
- Headcount: people on the payroll, whatever their hours.
Example. Our part-time helper counted as a fraction of one FTE. The agent that now does those tasks counts as none.