Full-time equivalent (FTE) is a way to measure a worker's productivity and/or involvement in a project. An FTE of 1.0 means that the person is equivalent to a full-time worker. An FTE of 0.5 may signal that the worker is only half-time, or that his projected output (due to differences in qualification, for example) is only half of what one may expect. Typically, different scales are used to calibrate this number, depending on the type of institution (schools, industry, research) and scope of the report (personnel cost, productivity).
The full time equivalent workforce describes the total number of full-time employees required to account for all paid ordinary time paid hours work. It is not a count of the number of employees. For example, if 18 people are employed (the headcount figure), 8 work full time and 10 of these people work part time (at 50% of a full time load) then the relative strength is:
8 full time (8 x 1.00 = 8.00) PLUS
10 part time at 50% (10 x .50 = 5.00)
a total of 13.00 FTE.
