Content
About the statistics
Definitions
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Name and topic
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Name: Health care personnel
Topic: Labour market and earnings
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Responsible division
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Division for Labour Market and Wage Statistics
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Definitions of the main concepts and variables
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Health care education
Health care education is a selection of education codes from Statistics Norway's Standard for Classification of Educations. In addition, the Register of Education for Health Care Personnel requiring authorization, administered by the Directorate of Health is used to define health care educations. The statistics provide information on 33 separate educations, 3 specializations and for the 3 aggregated groups for small health education types. For educations that are not in health care, there are 4 aggregated groups.
People who have been granted a license as health care personnel at a secondary educational level will be registered with a different education in the statistics if they have further education at university level. But for health care personnel already educated at a university, for example a nurse, this will not occur, because we have chosen to define the person as a nurse even though they have followed another basic course at university level.
Employed persons
Employed persons are defined as those who conducted at least one hour of paid work or worked as self employed in the 4th quarter each year and individuals who had such work, but who were temporarily absent due to illness, vacation, maternity leave etc. For employees and self-employed the register base is arranged so that the total number is decided by the number of self-employed according to Statistics Norway's Labour Force Sample Surveys. Who is considered self-employed is partly determined by whether they have employees with an active employment per 4th quarter and partly by income data from the year prior to the year of reference.
In certain contexts it is necessary to choose a main job for employees and multiple job holders. This is necessary in order to be able to distribute employed persons according to industry and place of work (municipality). As a main rule, the job with the largest number of working hours is defined as the main job.
Characteristics of individuals
Information about age is collected at the end of the year for the period 2000-2005. In 2006 the minimum age to be counted as employed was lowered from 16 to 15 years, in accordance with international recommendations. Also, the definition of age was changed from age at the end of the year to age at the end of the reference week. From 2015 onwards age is collected at the 16th of November.
Characteristics related to employment
Sickness absence certified by a doctor. Information about sickness absence certified by a doctor is collected from the National Insurance Administration's Register of sickness absence. The percentages of sickness absence for the fourth quarter of every year are used in the adjustment of the contracted man-years. The register of sickness absence only includes employees, but it is assumed that self-employed have the same absence percentage as employees within the same educational group.
Persons outside the labour force is made up of people who are not employed nor registered as unemployed. They are classified according to other registers in the following order: government employment programs, work rehabilitation, disability pensioners, retirement pensioners, receivers of cash-for-care, further education and the others.
From 2015 onwards
Contractual percentage of full-time equivalent
Contractual percentage of full-time equivalent is what you have agreed to work according to your contract of employment. The employer shall not consider additional work, overtime or different types of absence from work or if the hours have been paid or not. The information on contractual percentage of full-time equivalent is based on what is reported to the a-ordningen.
For persons that are paid by the hour without contractual working hours per week, e.g. on-call temporary workers, the employer can report 0 as contractual percentage of full-time equivalent. Statistics Norway will then calculate contractual percentage of full-time equivalent from what is reported as paid hours and number of hours that corresponds to a 100 per cent position in the moth of reporting.
In the reporting of the contractual full-time equivalent (FTE) percentage deficiencies have occurred. This is especially true for workers paid by the hour. To adjust for the deficiencies in this reporting, Statistics Norway has developed a new method for predicting the FTE-percentage. The new method is described in detail in this article, Metode for bedring av informasjon om arbeidstid i a-ordningen, but it is only available in Norwegian. In short we use a machine-learning algorithm named XGBoost, to predict the contractual FTE percentage in cases where the reported values are either missing or considered erroneous, using the information we have on earnings.
Contractual working hours per week
By combining information regarding contractual percentage of full-time equivalent and number of hours per week in a full position, contractual working hours per week is calculated for each employment (job) and wage earner (person).
The number of hours in a full position is the number of working hours that makes a full position in a similar employment. Unpaid lunchbreaks are withdrawn, but it is not adjusted for potential additional work, overtime or different types of absence from work
Contractual full-time/part-time
Full time is when the contractual percentage of full-time equivalent equals 100 or more. Part-time is when the contractual percentage of full-time equivalent is less than 100.
From 2000-2014
Contracted man-hours is estimated by measuring contracted working hour per week and comparing it to full time. Full-time is defined as 37.5 hours per week, but with reservation for certain professions, for example professions with shift work, where contracted full time work is estimated to less than 37.5 hours per week.
Contracted working hours is the number of working hours per week that the employee is obliged to work according to his work contract. Any absence from work caused by illness, holiday etc. should not be deducted from the contracted working, and overtime is not taken into account. Information about working hours in the National Insurance Administration's Register of Employees from the year 2001 registered in exact hours, while earlier the working was registered in intervals (4-19 hours, 20-29 hours or 30 hours plus per week).
The self-employed do not have contracted working hours. Instead an estimated number for mean working hours is taken from Statistic Norway's Labour Force Sample Survey. The estimate is conducted for different groups divided by sex and three different educational levels.
Characteristics related to enterprises
The variables workplace and industry are taken from the Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises, and refers to the enterprise where the employee is working. For self-employed who are not tied to any establishment or enterprise, information about place of residence, education and self-employment activities of other family members are taken into account.
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Standard classifications
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Industry
is based on The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC 2007) (NOS D 383).
Administrative information
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Regional level
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Municipality, county and national level. Statistics at municipality and county level are published in StatBank Norway. Statistics concerning the national level are published in Today's statistics.
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Frequency and timeliness
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The statistics are published annually, referring to the situation of the third week of November. Preliminary figures for activities in municipalities and counties are published annually in March through KOSTRA.
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International reporting
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Figures are sent annually to Eurostat, WHO and OECD
Background
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Background and purpose
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The purpose of register-based statistics on employment of health care personnel is to provide information on the structure and development of employment among persons with health care education. To get a broader view of the structure of the health care industry personnel with other educations, working in the health care industry, are included. For more information on the definitions and classifications by industry please cf. Standard of Industrial Classification NOS D 383,
The statistics were first published in July 2002, presenting statistics for 2000 and 2001.
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Users and applications
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Important users of these statistics are public administration, organisations and researchers with a particular interest in the health care industry, as well as the media and the public in general. The statistics provide information on the status and development for health care personnel and can be used as a basis for decision-making, reports and prognosis.
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Equal treatment of users
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Not relevant
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Coherence with other statistics
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Health care personnel
The Division for Health Statistics in Statistics Norway publishes statistics on personnel based on data collected by questionnaires in most fields covered by public health plans. The statistics are divided into more detailed fields within the health sector (http://www.ssb.no/emner/03) than the register based statistics. Since these questionnaires are not collected on an individual level, it is not possible to show the distribution according to, for example, demographic variables. Furthermore, the statistics do not cover work for individuals with a health care education working outside the health care industry.
Most of the data from questionnaires collected by the Division of Health Statistics is published in KOSTRA information sheets. Statistics on personnel in private and public dental care in KOSTRA are taken from the register-based health care personnel statistics.
Employment
The register-based statistics for health care personnel is a special version of the register-based employment statistics which is covering all educational groups and industries. In addition the register-based statistics for health care personnel is supplemented with foreign persons (i.e. persons not resident in Norway) working in the health care industry.
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Legal authority
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Act on Official Statistics and Statistics Norway § 10, cf. Act on the employer's reporting of employment and income conditions, etc. (the a-opplysnings Act) § 3.
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EEA reference
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Not relevant
Production
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Population
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The population in register-based statistics on health care personnel is persons with a health care education. In addition all other personnel working in the health care industry are included. The statistics also cover foreigners with short term employment in Norway, working for a Norwegian employer. The observational unit are individuals (persons), but the statistics include all active employment per person.
Persons living in Norway with employment abroad are not included in these statistics. These persons will however be included when figures concerning education are presented.
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Data sources and sampling
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From 2015 onwards
From 2015 onwards a new joint reporting solution called a-ordningen gathers the reporting from the employers to the Ee-register, produced by the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, as well as some reports to the Tax Administration and Statistics Norway. A-ordningen is a coordinated digital collection of data on employment, income and tax deductions to the Tax Administration, the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Organization and Statistics Norway. This new joint collection provides Statistics Norway with information on wages and employed persons directly from a-meldingen, which is the electronic message containing all the information collected, rather than the multiple sources used until 2014. You can find more information about the new reporting at www.altinn.no/en/a-ordningen.
A-ordningen has replaced the Register of Employers and Employees and the Register of End of the Year Certificates (Register of Wage Sums). In addition to a-ordningen other registers provide information, the most important is the Register for Personal Tax Payers administered by the Directorate of Taxes, the Register of Conscripts from the Armed Forces Personnel and National Service Centre and The Central Coordinating Register for Legal Entities.
The main sources for health care education are the Register for health care personnel administered by the Directorate of Health and the Norwegian database of education (NUDB) managed by Statistics Norway.
The registers mentioned above are still being used to assure the quality of the data, to consolidate the consistency between different data sources as well as choosing the right main job and to classify people as employed. A few additional registers are also being used for these purposes, the ARENA-register produced by the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Organization is one example. It provides data on unemployed and people engaged in labour market projects.
The registerbased employment statistics on health care personnel is a full count.
4th quarter 2000 – 4th quarter 2014
Register-based employment statistics in Statistics Norway are based on individual register data from several registers. Information related to employees and employment is collected from the Register of Employees (the National Insurance Administration), the End of the Year Certificate Register and the Tax Register (the Directorate of Taxes), and payroll registers. Variables concerning the enterprises, such as industry and institutional sector, are collected from the Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises (BoF). Additional information is collected from registers about persons engaged in job creation programs, maternity payments and cash benefits for parents (the National Insurance Administration), as well as Statistics Norway's register on doctor-certified sickness absence. The definition of employment is therefore based on a number of different sources. Statistics Norway has developed a system for common utilization of these sources.
The main sources for health care education are the Register for health care personnel administered by the Directorate of Health and the Norwegian database of education (NUDB) managed by Statistics Norway.
The register based employment statistics on health care personnel covers the complete population.
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Collection of data, editing and estimations
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Register of Health Care Personnel
Administered by the Directorate of Health. This register gives an overview of all health care personnel given license to practise their profession. Statistics Norway receives status per November for all personnel with a license to practise. The register contains educations where a state authorization is required, and therefore does not contain information about all health care educations. People with health care education who have not applied for a license are not included. The register may also include people who after application have been granted a Norwegian license, but never have practiced their profession in Norway.
Norwegian Database of education (NUDB)
Statistics Norway's own register of education is a supplement to the Register of Health Care Personnel. This register gives an overview of all education accomplished for all individuals settled in Norway by October 1st.
The Register of Employees
Statistics Norway receives data on changes in the employee register from the National Insurance Administration on a weekly basis. From 2015 onwards, the register is replaced by a-ordningen.
The End of the Year Certificate register
Concerning information from the Directorate of Taxes' End of the Year Certificate Register, preliminary deduction in March is used as data source. From 2015 onwards, the register is replaced by a-ordningen.
The Tax Register
Information from the tax returns is available in electronic version. Statistics Norway collects statistical material from the Directorate of Taxes annually.
The Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises
Variables concerning enterprises, such as the municipal location of workplace and industry are collected from the Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises, managed by Statistics Norway.
For the three most central registers concerning the production of statistics, checks and revisions follow this procedure:
The National Insurance Administration conducts an annual control of selected employers
Statistics Norway controls that enterprises with multiple establishments have separate numbers for each establishment and that the employees are registered at the establishment they actually work. This is important in order to ensure correct information about industry and municipal location of the workplace.
Statistics Norway controls the Register of Employees by comparing it with the End of the Year Certificate Register, the ARENA register's statistics on unemployment etc.
Statistics Norway receive monthly data from the Tax Administration Shared Services Agency (Etatens fellesforvaltning, EFF), a management entity of the Tax Administration, which administers a-ordningen on behalf of the three owner agencies; the Tax Administration, the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Organization and Statistics Norway.
Controls are carried out at several stages:
- Rules of business in the reception at The Tax Administration Shared Services Agency (EFF)
- In the production system for wages and employment at Statistics Norway
Rules of business (controls) in the reception at EFF:
A number of rules of business (controls) are being run to detect errors/omissions in the submitted information, after a-meldingen is received by EFF. Small to medium sized legal entities with a declaration obligation receives a feedback in a short amount of time (less than a minute). The larger legal entities have to wait a little longer for the feedback. The feedbacks from EFF include all uncovered discrepancies, where in the submitted information the discrepancies take place and what rule of business has been broken.
Rules of business and errors that can occur are documented at the homepages of a-ordningen: https://www.skatteetaten.no/en/business-and-organisation/employer/the-a-melding/
Controls in the production structure of Statistics Norway:
A number of checks and automatic actions are taking place during the production, the purpose is to ensure the quality of the data for statistical purposes. We distinguish between three types of controls:
a) Automatic checks and actions
b) Reports (monitoring)
c) Manual checks
In addition to this, controls and checks are being carried out throughout the year, regardless of publication.
Checks that aim to uncover defects and discrepancies that should be corrected are mostly aimed at the employments. Several controls have uncovered errors and missing values concerning the number of hours in a full-time position and the percentage position, combined with other features like whether a job is a main job or second job, the contractual working hours and the payment arrangements, such as:
- The number of hours worked are missing
- The number of hours that qualifies as full-time is probably reported wrongly
- The number of hours that qualifies as full-time deviates from the reported contractual working hours
- The number of hours that qualifies as full-time are extremely high or low
- The position percentage is missing
Many registered employments are removed (not considered active) during the production because wage of the employment relation has not been registered in the reference month. This could apply to seasonal workers who have not performed any work in the reference month (and therefore not been paid), and where a date of termination of employment (wrongly) has not been reported, or in cases where individuals have mistakenly been reported with an active employment (e.g. temporary staff who has not been working during the given period).
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Seasonal adjustment
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Not relevant
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Confidentiality
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Figures which reveals a person identity will not be published.
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Comparability over time and space
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From 2015 onwards
A new data Source
The main source for information about wage earners in the statistics Health care personnel, is the register-based employment statistics. From the year 2015, these statistics are based on a new data source for employees. Until the end of 2014, the main data source was The Central Register on Employers and Employees (EE register), produced by the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Organisation (NAV). In 2015, this reporting to NAV was coordinated with the reporting of earnings and personnel data to the Tax Administration and Statistics Norway. This common reporting system is called “a-ordningen”. “A-ordningen” provides a better data basis compared to the EE register, as it is more accurate on the individual level in addition to covering a greater number of employees.
Change in the time series
With the transition to the new data source, we obtain more precise figures on the number of employed persons. When using this new source, the number of employed persons, which include all sectors, is 60 000 lower than in the old data base, which used the number employed in the country from the Labour Force Surveys as the base. This is a modest difference of 2.4 per cent compared to the total number employed, but as a result of the change in the data base the register numbers for the number employed in the 4th quarter of 2014 compared to the 4th quarter of 2015 do not express an actual change.
Data source from the 4th quarter of 2000 – 4th quarter of 2014
During the production of the register-based statistics for 2002, several improvements in the production routine have been made. The increase in the number of people with a health care education is partly a result of an upgrade of the Norwegian Population Register, a clearing-up of the definitions of age for foreign citizens, and the fact that ten new educations have become state authorized. The increase in the number of employed is caused by the new register-based employment statistics implemented, which implies in particular that employments with a small number of working hours now are available in the statistics.
The reason for the reduction in the number of contracted man-years is that the Register of Employees includes information about the exact working hours per week. This variable was implemented for about 70 per cent of the employees in 2001 and approximately 100 per cent in 2002. For the employees for whom we lack information either in 2000 or for a few in 2001, the exact number of hours is measured by using the average for the groups with exact working time.
The large reduction between 2000 and 2001 in the number of dispensing pharmacists and the corresponding increase in the number of pharmacists is a consequence of a change in 2001, making it possible for dispensing pharmacists to apply for an official license as pharmacist. Both people with education as dispensing pharmacist and as cand.pharm can now apply for license to practice as a pharmacist. In addition, the pharmacist education became state authorized as of January 2001.
The strong increase between 2001 and 2002 in the number of people educated as medical secretary, care worker, paramedic, pharmacy technician, dental secretary, dental technician, audiologist, certified prosthetist, pharmacist and clinical nutritionist is caused by the possibility to apply for a license to practice as of January 2001.
Data source for Oslo municipality
Due to introduction of a new computer system, the municipality of Oslo has experienced problems with notifications to the Central Register of Employees, thus the number of employed persons in Oslo municipality is likely to be under-reported by 2 500 – 3 500 persons in 4 th quarter 2012. This data bias is counter-balanced in the production of this statistic by corresponding upward adjustments in the number of persons employed by other enterprises. Since these adjustments are made for all employers in all industries and sectors, effects of these adjustments are negligible in individual tables, except for some of the tables concerning municipal authorities in Oslo municipality.
Accuracy and reliability
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Sources of error and uncertainty
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From 2015 onwards
In the reporting of the contractual full-time equivalent (FTE) percentage, which is used to calculate contractual working hours, deficiencies have occurred. This is especially true for workers paid by the hour. To adjust for the deficiencies in this reporting, Statistics Norway has developed a new method for predicting the FTE-percentage. The new method is described in detail in this article, Metode for bedring av informasjon om arbeidstid i a-ordningen, but it is only available in Norwegian. In short we use a machine-learning algorithm named XGBoost, to predict the contractual FTE percentage in cases where the reported values are either missing or considered erroneous, using the information we have on earnings.
Self-employed are identified using information from the Register for Personal Tax Payers. Due to the long production process, information about business activities is from the previous year. Thus, a person may wrongly be defined as employed even if the activity ended the previous year.
Before 2015 the total number of employed persons was determined by the Labour Force Survey (LFS), collected and distributed by employees and self-employed. From 2015 onwards only the number of self-employed is determined by the LFS. The number of employees is determined solely from the a-register, which mitigates the sample uncertainty that follows with the LFS-figures. On the other hand, the level number of employees will be a bit low.
2000-2014
For people defined as employees only on the basis of information from the End of the Year Certificate Register (approximately 8 per cent of the wage earners), the employment is not dated. For about half of this population, information is collected from other administrative sources which make it possible to date the employment. For the remainder, the size of the wages is taken into account when evaluating whether the person is to be classified as employed. There is therefore some uncertainty as to whether the employment existed in the 4th quarter.
The self-employed are identified by information from the Tax Register. Due to a long procedure of production, information from the previous year is used for the statistics. As a consequence of this delay, some people may incorrectly be classified as employed even though they terminated their employment the previous year.
The figures for contracted man-years are less reliable for the self-employed. This is because the registers contain no data on working hours on micro level. The information therefore needs to be supplemented with data on the number of hours worked on a highly aggregated level from the Labour Force Sample Surveys. These figures also contain sampling uncertainty. The use of such data means that the differences in working hours between individuals within the groups will disappear.
Data source for Oslo municipality
Due to introduction of a new computer system, the municipality of Oslo has experienced problems with notifications to the Central Register of Employees, thus the number of employed persons in Oslo municipality is likely to be under-reported by 2 500 – 3 500 persons in 4 th quarter 2012. This data bias is counter-balanced in the production of this statistic by corresponding upward adjustments in the number of persons employed by other enterprises. Since these adjustments are made for all employers in all industries and sectors, effects of these adjustments are negligible in individual tables, except for some of the tables concerning municipal authorities in Oslo municipality.
machine-learning algorithm based on gradient boosted decision trees
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Revision
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Not relevant