Labour force survey

The definitions in the Norwegian LFS are in accordance with the definitions in other European countries. Norway complies with the EU regulations and participates in the European statistical cooperation.

Employed persons are persons who performed work for pay or profit for at least one hour in the reference week, or who were temporarily absent from work because of illness, holidays etc. Persons engaged by government measures to promote employment are also included if they receive wages. Persons laid off 100 per cent with a continuous duration of until three months are defined as employed.

The employment rate is calculated as a percentage of the whole population in the same age bracket.

Unemployed persons are persons who were not employed in the reference week, but who had been actively seeking work during the preceding four weeks, and were available for work in the reference week or within the next two weeks. Persons laid off 100 per cent are defined as unemployed after three continuous months of leave if they also fulfil the criterions of active searching and being available to take a job.

The unemployment rate is calculated as a percentage of the labour force.

The labour force is the sum of persons in employment and the unemployed, that is, those who activel yoffer their labour on the labour market. They are also referred to as economically active.

Persons outside the labour force are those who are neither in employment nor unemployed. The group inclueds persons laid off 100% and who do not fulfil the criterions of active search and availability.

Status in employment groups the employed on being employees, self-employed, or unpaid family workers. In the LFS, persons in employment who during the interview confirm that their registered job in the A-scheme is in fact their job will be classified as employees. The exception is those who are contractors or free lance workers. They are asked about the number of clients / customers and their payment forms. Those who worked for only one client / customer in the reference week and who received a wage from them are classified as employees. The remaining are classified as self-employed. Persons in employment who do not confirm the register information in the A-scheme are asked if they are employees, self-employed, familiy workers, contractors or freelance, and coded accordingly.

In addition to the measurement of employment and unemployment according to the international recommendations and definitions, it is also asked a single question in the LFS to all non-employed persons, and to the part-time employed persons, about their main activity. This variable gives the persons' self-perception regarding their activity or status. The purpose is to estimate how many people are in education, homemakers, pensioners etc., and how many have a part-time job besides.

The potential labour force consist of persons who were not employed in the reference week, but had either been seeking work during the preceding four weeks or were available for work in the reference week or within the next two weeks.

The extended labour force consist of the (ordinary) labour force and the potential labour force.

The labour market slack consist of the unemployed, persons working part-time involuntary and persons in the potential labour force.

Man-hours worked include all actual working hours, i.e. including overtime and excluding absence from work. This is published as man-weeks per week, and can therefore also be read as the number of employed full time equivalents in the month under consideration.

Contractual/usual working hours refer to the weekly number of working hours determined by the working contract. Absence from work because of illness, holidays etc. is not subtracted, and overtime is not included. Employees whose contractual working hours vary from week to week give information on the average of their contractual working hours per week over the last three months. This also applies to self-employed and family workers.

Full-time/part-time distinction is based on usual working hours per week. Usual working hours of 37 and more is full-time, in addition to varying working hours or usual working hours between 32 and 36 where the respondent classify this as full-time work. The rest is classified as part-time, i.e. usual working hours less than 32 hours and varying hours or usual working hours between 32 and 36 where the respondent classify this as part-time work. For persons with more than one job, only the usual working hours in the main job is used in the classification of full-time/part-time work.

Overtime is defined as working hours which exceed the contractual working hours. The overtime may be compensated by payment or by time off, or be without any compensation.

Underemployed persons consist of part-time employed persons wishing and seeking longer usual working hours and who were able to start with increased working hours within a month. This definition corresponds to that of the unemployed in the meaning that they must be both seeking and available.

Persons who work involuntary part-time consist of employed persons wishing longer usual working hours and who are able to start with increased working hours within a month. This group differs from the underemployed since they don't need to be seeking more increased working hours, it suffices to wishing it and beeing available for it.

The employees are asked whether they have a permanent job (a work contract of unlimited duration) or a temporary job (a work contract of limited duration). If the person has more than one job, only the main job is classified by permanence.

There are two kinds of working time arrangements outside ordinary hours (Monday to Friday from 6 am to 6 pm).

• Shift work is working time outside normally working hours in pre specified periods.
• Work outside ordinary hours, not shift work. This refers to work on evenings, nights, Saturdays and Sundays which is not shift work. Evening work is defined as work between 6 pm and 10 pm. Night work is between 10 pm and 6 am.

Respondents who report that they work on one or more of these working time schedules outside ordinary hours are also asked about the frequency of this kind of work during a four week period. This is done for each of the working time schedule separately. Based on this, the work outside regularly hours is divided into the categories "regularly" or "sometimes".

For evening and night work, the respondent must have this kind of work on at least half of their working days in the four week period to be defined as having regularly evening work and/or regularly night work.

For work on weekends, they must work 2-4 Saturdays and/or 2-4 Sundays during the four week period to be defined as having regularly Saturday and/or Sunday work. The respondents who have these kinds of working schedules, but more seldom than indicated above, are defined as sometimes having this kind of work.

Age means completed years in the reference week.

Immigrants are persons born outside Norway to parents who were also born outside Norway. This information is collected from registers.

The industrial classification is based on the EU-standard of NACE Rev. 2.

The occupational classification is based on the International Standard Classification of Occupations 2008 (ISCO-08).

The educational classification is in accordance with the Norwegian Standard Classification of Education.

Most 15 year old and some 16 year old have not yet completed primary education, but in the LFS they are still coded as completed.

Classification of regions follow the standard for regions