Job vacancies, Q1 2012

Figures are given on a national level.

This is a quarterly statistics. The figures are released 6-9 weeks after the end of each quarter. Release dates for the next four months are given in the advance release calendar.

To Eurostat in accordance with the Regulation (EC) No 453/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of the 23rd of April 2008.

Microdata are saved permanently.

The purpose of the statistics on job vacancies is to give information about the level and the structure of labour demand both on a national level and broken down by industry. This provides knowledge of the development of the labour market and of the economy in general. The statistics are to be comparable with similar statistics from the other European countries affected by the previously mentioned EU Regulation.

There is a need for data on job vacancies broken down by industry to render possible monitoring and analyzing structural imbalances in the labour market.

The survey begun in the 1 ^st quarter of 2010, and the first release of data was in 2011.

Important users include public authorities, scientists, media, labour and employers’ organisations, enterprises and international organisations.

All external users are given admission to the statistics simultanously at 08.00 on ssb.no after having been announced at least three months in advance in the calendar of the statistics: Statistikkkalenderen.  These are one of the most important principles in SSB to secure that all users are treated equally:lik behandling av brukarane.

The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NLWA) produces statistics on job vacancies on a monthly basis, but with another scope and a different definition than the ones stipulated in the EC Regulation mentioned above. The job vacancy statistics of the NLWA includes job vacancies that are reported to the NLWA or announced in the media (newspapers, magazines, etc.). The statistics of the NLWA does not include informal announcements or job vacancies exclusively announced by other means mentioned above (for example announcements on home pages on the internet). As these methods of announcements are pretty common, especially in certain industries, Statistics Norway gets a higher estimate on the number of job vacancies than the NLWA gets. This is mainly due to diverging definitions.

It is possible to compare this statistics with the monthly statistics of the NLWA, keeping in mind that the two definitions are different. A comparison with the figures of the NLWA will show that the figures of Statistics Norway are significantly higher than the figures of the NLWA. In the period from the 1st quarter of 2010 to the 4th quarter of 2014 , the figures of the NLWA amounted to 30 per cent in average of the figures from the job vacancy survey conducted by Statistics Norway.

The Official Statistics and Statistics Norway Act § 10, cf. The employer's reporting of employment and income conditions Act, etc. (the a-opplysnings Act) § 3. 

The Official Statistics and Statistics Norway Act § 20 (compulsory fines)

Regulation (EC) No 453/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 on quarterly statistics on Community job vacancies.

The statistics cover establishments (with employees) in all industries except industry classifications 97 (Activities of household as employers) and 99 (Activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies).

The statistics on job vacancies are based on data reported by a sample of establishments.

A random sample of 8000 establishments is drawn from the Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises (CRE). The establishments are divided into groups/strata by industry and size. All the establishments in the population with at least 5 employees are divided into 4 groups depending on the number of employees. The division after industry is done based on the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC2007). This ensures good representation in all industries and among big and small establishments. In each of the 4 size group there are 35 industry groups, so the total number of groups/strata is 140. Within each group/stratum, all the establishments have the same probability of being drawn to the sample.

The probability of being drawn to the sample varies from size stratum to size stratum. The establishments with less than 5 employees are not drawn, while all the big establishments are drawn (more than about 100 employees). In a few industries, all the establishments are drawn. In this way, almost 2 per cent of the establishments have to answer the survey, but they represent more than 25 per cent of the total number of employees in the population.

The biggest establishments take part in the survey all the time, while the others participate for two years at a time. Therefore, we replace almost half the sample each year.

The drawing of the sample is coordinated with several other surveys in Statistics Norway in order to disperse the burden placed on establishments.

Statistics Norway sends each quarter a letter to inform the establishments that the questionnaire will be ready in Altinn, the offical web-based reporting system. This letter  is sent out in the first week after the middle month of each quarter. It is sent directly to the establishments. The letter about the obligation to participate in the survey is sent earlier to the enterprises. The deadline is appoximately 3 weeks.

Approximately 99 per cent of the establishments which answer the survey do so via the official web-based Altinn reporting system. There, the respondent gets a warning if the reported number of job vacancies is very high or very low in relation to the number of employees. The respondent then can choose to change the reported figure or to ignore the warning and report the figure. In this way some of the typing errors are avoided.

All the replies from the questionnaire are loaded in to a system of editing where the control is activated if the number of reported job vacancies in relation to the number of employees is very low or very high. We e-mail or telephone the relevant establishments to confirm the reported figure. Some errors due to misunderstandings with regard to definition of the establishment (e.g. separating the establishment from the rest of the enterprise) are avoided this way.

In the estimation procedures, there are routines to even further investigate establishments with extreme values. The result of these investigations might be to keep these data out of the estimation procedure.

The estimation of job vacancies is based on the idea that each establishment in the sample is representing several establishments, which means that we can calculate the number of job vacancies for the entire population of establishments. In the estimation we use register information on the number of employee relationships and industry for each establishment in the entire population. The number of employee relationships is gathered from CRE, which for its turn has the relevant information from the "a-melding ". All employers have to report electronically each month to the  "a-melding" all salaries, pensions and other renumerations in the firm. The " a-melding" goes to the Norwegian Tax Administration, the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NLWA) and SSB. The information on the number of employee relationships is therefore based on the enterprise’s own reporting to the "a-melding".

To inflate the sample data on job vacancies to population level, that is to represent all establishments in the relevant industries in Norway, we use a model-based ratio estimator. In the stratified ratio model we assume that the variable number of employee relationships in the establishment (x) contributes to explain the variable number of job vacancies at the establishment (y) and that the correlation between the two variables is approximately linear within each stratum. Based on the survey data (number of employee relationships and number of job vacancies), we estimate the correlation, represented by the gradient β– between the number of employee relationships and the number of job vacancies. The correlation β is estimated by a weighted least square method in each industry and size stratum. Within each stratum, the total number of job vacancies (y) is estimated by the number of employee relationships (x) in that stratum multiplied by the gradient  β for that particular stratum, plus an individual residual ε :

y =  βx + ε;

By stratum we here mean one of the 35 industry groups within one of the 4 size groups, making a total number of 140 groups.

Since the smallest establishments are not participating in the survey, we make an assumption that the correlation between the number of employee relationships and the number of job vacancies for establishments with 1-4 employees on average is identical with the one for establishments with 5-9 employees.

Seasonally adjusted figures are calculated by use of the X12-ARIMA method. The number of job vacancies and the number of occupied posts are seasonally adjusted by 20 industry groups. This gives a total of 40 series that are adjusted directly. The figures for occupied posts are not published, but they are parts of the denominator in the job vacancy rate. We get the seasonally adjusted figures for the two totals by aggregating the adjusted component series. Seasonally adjusted figures are also given by 10 industry groups. Five of these groups are adjusted for seasonally variations directly and are also parts of the 20 industry groups, while the other five are indirectly adjusted, i.e. the seasonally adjusted figures for the remaining 15 industry groups are aggregated to five groups. 

X12-ARIMA decides between additive and multiplicative decomposition of the series, and it chooses the best ARIMA model, and seasonal and trend filter. These optimal choices are normally locked for one year. The seasonal components and the parameters in the pre-adjustment regressions are calculated every quarter.

X12-ARIMA pre-adjust the time series by use of regression analysis. Regression variables are pre-specified to handle extreme values, level shifts and changes in the seasonal components. The trend-cycle and the seasonally adjusted figures for occupied posts are also adjusted for the transition to the A-ordningen.

Figures that identify groups of less than three establishments are not released.

Movable holidays will not affect the level of job vacancies due to the chosen reference period (for example, Easter Day can only occur between 22 ^nd of March and 25 ^th of April, then Easter will never occur in any of our reference periods).

We compare every quarter with the corresponding quarter(s) the previous year(s). In some industries, it is commonplace to announce job vacancies at certain times of the year. For example, many schools announce job vacancies in the period before the end of the school year. Consequently, the estimated number of job vacancies in education is normally higher in the 2 ^nd quarter than in the other quarters. Similar seasonal variations may occur in other industries, and it is therefore most reasonable to compare the results of each quarter with the results from the corresponding quarter(s).

As mentioned above the statistics is to be comparable with similar statistics in the other countries in the European Economic Area (EEA). These countries are obliged to produce job vacancy statistics in accordance with EC Regulation.

Changing the register from which we collected the number of employees in 2015 brought quality improvements, resulting in an increase in the collected number of employees. This is explained in more detail above. The number of employees is not published in these statistics, but the figures are included in the denominator in the joc vacancy rate. Therefore, there is a break in the job vacancy rate between the 4th quarter of 2014 and the 1st quarter of 2015.