Working environment, survey on living conditions

Persons in work

Respondents are counted as part of the working population if they performed at least one hour of paid work the past week or if they were temporarily absent from work. Both employed and self-employed are included.

Employees

Respondents who work for an employer. Does not include self-employed or persons performing unpaid work in family business. Since 2019 this category no longer includes persons who are employed in a company where they are sole-owners.

Physical work environment

Covers exposure to various physical working conditions. Presents the figures for those who are exposed to various conditions most of the time , ie the employees responded that he / she is exposed to various conditions almost all the time. Approx 3/4 of the time or half the time.

Exposed to poor indoor climate : people who are exposed to poor indoor air quality in the form of drafts, dry air, poor ventilation and others forms of poor indoor climate.

Exposed to skin irritating substances : people who in their daily work, who has:

• skin contact with oils, lubricants or cutting fluids, or
• with detergents, disinfectants, solvents or degreasers

Exposed to dust, gas or steam : people who in their daily work can clearly observe in the air or smell:

• dust, smoke, gases or vapors
• dust or fumes from metals (eg. welding fumes, lead, chromium, nickel, zinc, aluminum, copper or tin dust)
• mineral dust (eg. from stone, quartz, cement, asbestos or mineral wool)
• organic dust (eg. from textiles, wood, flour, cloth or animal)
• gas / vapor (eg. ammonia, hydrochloric acid, chlorine, nitrous oxides, formaldehyde, called water vapor or solvents?

Exposure to biological materials : people who in their daily work is in contact with body fluids, ie blood, saliva, feces or urine.

Ergonomical working environment
Various issues related to movement or static postures, stressful jobs, heavy lifting etc.

Relations to work place and various working conditions
Different questions covering employment conditions, job security, restructuring and reorganization of work and its impact on the individual, satisfaction with job opportunities and health and safety issues.

Work related health complaints, work accidents and sick leave
Work related health complaints : questions about different types of health problems last month, and if the health problem is due to current job (previous job for those not working)

Long-term sick leave : persons that in the past 12 months have had continuous absence of more than 14 days

Help and feedback, cooperation, appreciation, violence and harassment

Questions covering different psychosocial factors at work.

Exposed to Violence : we ask whether the person have been the victim of workplace violence that led to visible marks or bodily injury and violence in the workplace that led to visible marks or bodily injury during the last 12 months. We then ask how many times they have been exposed to these two types of violence during the period.

Number of times exposed to violence, average: Average among employed people who have been exposed to violence

Exposed to threat of violence : we ask whether the person have been subjected to threats that were so severe that they were afraid during the last 12 months. We then ask how many times they have been exposed to this during the period.

Number of times exposed to treat of violence, average: Average among employed people who have been exposed to threat of violence

Exposed to hassle or teasing: we ask if the person are exposed to bullying or nasty teasing of fellow workers once or more times a week, once or several times a month or never. We then ask person is subjected to bullying or nasty teasing of superior once or more times a week, once or several times a month or never.

Exposed to unwanted sexual attention, remarks, etc.: we ask if the person are exposed to unwanted sexual attention, comments, etc. in their workplace, once or more times a week, once or several times a month or never.

Job demands, control, role conflict and expectations in the job

The questions cover different psychosocial factors at work, such as client contact, requirements in terms of speed, ability to maintain control over various aspects of their own work, role conflict and expectations in the job.

Age

Persons are grouped by age at year-end for the completion of the main part of the interview.

Occupation

 In 2011 there was also implemented a new Norwegian standard classification of occupations . (STYRK-08). This is based on the International Standard Classification of Occupations 2008 - ISCO-08. The standard is adjusted in the publishing of results from the level of living survey on working environment 2013.  These adjustments are described below.

1-digit classification:
1 = Managers
2+35 = Professinals
3 = Technicians and associate professionals
4 = Clerical support workers
5 = Service and sales workers 
6 = Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers
7 = Craft and trades workers
8 = Plant and machine operators, and assemblers
9 = Elementary occupations
0+3351+3355+54 = Protective services workers, police, armed forces and unspecified

2-digit classification:
11-14 = Managers
21 = Science and engineering professionals
22 = Health professionals
222 = Nursing and midwifery professionals
23 = Teaching professionals
24 = Business and administration professionals
25+35 = ICT professionals and ICT technicians
26 = Legal, social and cultural professionals
31 = Science and engineering associate professionals 
32 = Health associate professionals
33 = Business and administration associate professionals
34 = Legal, social, cultural and related associate professionals
41+44 = General and keyboard clerks and other clerical support workers
42 = Customer services clerks
43 = Numerical and material recording clerks
51 = Personal service wokers
52 = Sales workers 
53 = Personal care workers 
61-62 =  Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers
71 = Building and related trades workers, excluding electricians
72 = Metal, machinery and related trades workers
74 = lectrical and electronics trades workers
73+75 = Handicraft, food processing and other craft related trades workers
81-82 = Stationary plant and machine operators and assemblers
83 = Drivers and mobile plant operators
91 = Cleaners and helpers
92-96 = Labourers in agriculture, mining etc
01-03+3351+3355+54 = Protective services workers, police, armed forces etc
00 = Unspecified or unidentifiable occupations

Name: Working environment, survey on living conditions
Topic: Labour market and earnings

Division for Income and social welfare statistics

National.

The survey on working conditions and working environment is carried out every 3 years. The topic used to be part of the general Survey og Living Conditions EU-SILC which is conducted annually, with rotating topics.

Not relevant

Data files with results from the interviews and statistical files with coded variables, linked information and weights are stored. Anonymised files are also available for researchers through the Norwegian Social Science Data Archives .

The Survey of Living Conditions aim to give insight into the main aspects of and differences in living conditions, and follow their development over time. The Survey of Living Conditions EU-SILC will, together with the surveys of working conditions and health care and social contact, over a 3-year period cover the major areas of living conditions.

The first surveys of living conditions in Norway were conducted six times between 1973 and 1995. These surveys shed light on the general components of living conditions; economics, housing conditions, leisure, social contact, health, education, employment and working conditions.

In 1996 a coordinated system of surveys was introduced. The system consisted of annual surveys with a set of rotating topics and an annual panel survey. Work environment was the theme in 1996, 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2009. Housing, leisure activities and victims of crime was the theme in 1997, 2001, 2004 and 2007. Health care and social relations was the theme in 1998, 2002, 2005 and 2008. The annual panel survey covered some important main topic.

The regular living conditions survey by Statistics Norway consists, from 2011, of the annual Survey of Living Conditions EU-SILC, a survey of working environment that is carried out every three years, and a survey of health that is carried out approximately every five years.

The main users are government ministries, directorates, and research communities in the areas of working environment, health care, housing, leisure and local environment and living conditions in general.

Apart from this the statistics serve as a basis for information to the media and others interested in the condition and development in the living conditions.

No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 08:00 am. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given in the Statistics Release Calendar. This is one of Statistics Norway’s key principles for ensuring that all users are treated equally.

The concept of living conditions covers a very wide range of topics and statistics on living conditions is therefore associated with many other statistics.

Information on employment is collected from several sources. The Labour Force Survey is an important source and provide some information that supplements the information in the study of living conditions, eg. training in the workplace, weekend work, working arrangements and disability relation to the labor market. Some records like the employee/employer registry, sick leave registry etc. are also relevant. The information in these registers can also be utilized in the survey of living conditions.

Voluntary survey

Not relevant

The living condition survey on working conditions earlier included persons at the age 16-66 years, and as from 2006 persons aged 18-66 years. Employed short-term immigrants and persons living in insitutions are not covered by the statistics.

Data sources are interview data from the annual representative sample surveys and various attached registry information.

Tha main sample for the SLC about working conditions is 5000 persons. Usually this has been supplied with an additional sample. as from 2006 the sample is 20-21 000 persons. In addition to having cross-sectional properties the survey will be a panel, so that the same people will be contacted again the next time the SLC about working conditions is conducted.

The sample is drawn according to the procedures for random selection.

Data collection is done by telephone (Computer Assisted Telephone Interview CATI). Data collection for the Survey of Working Environment occurs mainly from in the autumn in the year of interview.

The interview takes place using a computer-based questionnaire. The questionnaire includes various controls to prevent incorrect answers or registration errors during the interview. In some cases, the interviewer receives warnings for the registered response. In other cases, there is a limit on values that can not be exceeded. Moreover, it verifies that only valid codes are recorded.

In surveys where industry and occupation are collected, these are encoded by Statistics Norway.

The sample consists of people.

Not relevant

Not relevant

The SLC on working environment is based partly on the earlier surveys on working environment in 1989 and 1993. Some time series can thus be traced back to 1989. In recent years, major revisions were made in 2006 and 2009. In some areas time series are therefore short.  In 2008 the new  Norwegian Standard Industrial Classification (SIC2007) implemented in Statistics Norway. The standard is based on EUs NACE rev.2. In 2011 there was also implemented a new Norwegian standard classification of occupations . (STYRK-08). This is based on the International Standard Classification of Occupations 2008 - ISCO-08.  

The gross sample is drawn in order to reflect the whole population, however, because non-response differs unequally in the different categories used, the net sample will not be fully representative. This bias will vary for different groups and variables in question. In order to adjust for some of the biases that the net sample in relation to the gross sample, figures in the tables are weighted. The following variables are included in the weighting for non-response: Gender, age, education and family size.

The uncertainty of the findings based only a part of the population is often called sampling variance. Standard deviation is a measure of this uncertainty. The size of standard deviation depends, among other factors, on the number of observation in the sample, and on the distribution of the current variable in the whole population.

Statistic Norway has not made exact calculations to compute standard deviation for the findings. However, in table 1, the approximate size of standard deviation is given for observed percentages.

To illustrate the uncertainty associated with a percentage, we can use an interval to give the level of the true value of an estimated quantity (the value obtained if making observation on the whole population instead of observation based on a part of the population). Such intervals are called confidence intervals if constructed in a special way. In this connection one can use the following method: let M be the estimated quantity, and S the estimate of standard deviation of M. The confidence interval will be an interval with limits (M - 2*S) and (M + 2*S).

This method will give, with approximately 95 per cent probability, an interval containing the true value.

The following example illustrates the use of table 1 for finding confidence intervals: The estimate of standard deviation of 70 percent is 3.2 when the estimate is based on 300 observations. The confidence interval for the true value has limits 70 ± 2*3.2, which means the interval, is from 63.6 to 76.4 per cent.

Table 1. Standard deviation in per cent

Not relevant