Number of employments and earnings

The statistics of the number of employees and jobs (employments) are based on reported information from A-ordningen every month and for the middle month of a given quarter. Statistics Norway follows the recommendations of the International Labour Organization (ILO) regarding the preparation of labour statistics in the choice of key concepts and definitions.

Important definitions

Employed persons

Employed persons are persons who performed paid work of at least one hour's duration in the reference week, as well as persons who have such work but who were temporarily absent due to illness, vacation, paid leave, etc. Persons who are serving in the military, performing civil work, etc. are regarded as employed. Employed persons include employees and self-employed persons, but this statistic only covers employees.

Employees

Employees are persons who receive compensation for work in the form of earnings. For employees with more than one job (employment), one is established as the most important (i.e., the main job (employment)).

Job/employment

Job/employment: Job and employment are used synonymously and define work compensated by earnings. A person may have several jobs/employments in different establishments.

Characteristics related to employer

Place of work and industry division

The characteristics of the place of work and industry division are obtained from the Central Register of Business Establishments and Enterprises (CRE) and apply to the establishment where the person works.

Sector

Sector is obtained from the Central Register of Business Establishments and Enterprises (CRE) and apply to the enterprise where the person works. The following division is used:

1. Central government: comprises central governmental units that carry out political responsibilities, provide and enforce regulations, produce public services (mainly non-market) and redistribute income and wealth.
2. Local government: comprises local and regional institutional units (mainly counties and municipalities) that carry out political responsibilities and produce public services (mainly non-market).
3. Private sector, public enterprises, and unspecified: comprises private enterprises and public incorporated enterprises not included in the central or local government. Public incorporated enterprises are enterprises where the state - directly or indirectly - holds a stake of more than 50 percent of the paid-in-capital.

Personal characteristics

Place of residence, sex, and age

Characteristics such as place of residence, sex, and age are obtained from the National Registry. Age is determined on the 16^th of every month, while the place of residence is by the end of each month.

Residents

Residents are defined as persons registered in the National Registry including temporary residents who plan on staying in Norway for six months or more.

Non-residents

Non-residents are defined as persons registered in the National Registry with a planned stay in Norway of less than six months. Non-residents include persons with a temporary social security number (D-number) or registered as emigrants, but who work in Norway.

Immigrants

Immigrants are defined as persons who are born abroad, have foreign-born parents and grandparents, and later immigrated to Norway.

Employment-related characteristics

Occupation

Information on occupation is based on the standard Classification of Occupations (STYRK-08), which is based on ISCO-08 (COM). The occupation code is determined by the employee’s specific duties, not their level of education, the type of position concerned, salary or industry. It is up to the employer to decide which occupation code is correct. Employers report a 7-digit occupational code from the old standard for occupational classification (STYRK98) when reporting the a-melding (skatteetaten.no). SSB converts all 7-digit codes to a 4-digit STYRK-08. This table shows the conversion: Correspondence table between the occupational catalogue, based on STYRK-98, and STYRK-08. We lack information on occupation for foreign contractors who have only been reported to the Norwegian Tax Agency's Assignment and employee register (skatteetaten.no). Missing information on occupation also occurs due to errors in the reporting. In addition, it was voluntary for employers to report the occupational code in the a-melding for freelancers, contractors and fee recipients from 2015 to March 2019. From April 2019, the occupational code was mandatory for this group as well. The latter contributes to a large decrease in the number of unspecified occupations between 2018 and 2019.

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 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.

For the employment type "freelancers", contractual percentage is not mandatory to report.

Contractual working hours

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).

Contractual working hours in a full position per week

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

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.

Earning terms

The quarterly earnings statistics only include persons with earnings in a given quarter. Therefore, the number of jobs that are the basis for the earnings statistics may differ from the total number of jobs.

The term earning relates to payment for work in an employment relationship. The statistics do not include payment or benefit in kind, insurance, expense allowance, holiday pay, etc. Gross earnings before tax are the basis of the earning terms.

Basic monthly earnings

Basic monthly earnings are an estimated quarterly size. It is the fixed amount that is paid, defined as hourly, monthly, fortnightly, or weekly earnings. Basic monthly earnings are the actual paid amount at the time of count and are often described as earnings on a scale or regular basic earnings. Qualification/skills allowances and other regular personal allowances are included. Basic monthly earnings are published as an average per full-time equivalent.

Monthly earnings

Monthly earnings include basic monthly earnings, variable additional allowances and bonuses. This is measured in the middle month of the quarter. Overtime pay is not included in monthly earnings. Monthly earnings are published as an average per full-time equivalent.

Full-time equivalents

To compare earnings between full-time and part-time employees, the earnings of part-time employees are converted to the equivalent for full-time work. By using the percentage of each part-time employee’s position as a conversion factor. Monthly earnings per full-time equivalent for part-time employees are merged with the monthly earnings of full-time employees, allowing the average monthly earnings for all employees to be estimated.

Payment in cash

Payment in cash includes all payments in cash from the employer including basic monthly earnings, fixed and variable additional allowances, bonuses, overtime pay, and other payments in cash not specified here, before taxes. Published payment in cash figures are averages per job (not as full-time equivalents).

Earnings index

Indices are used to show development over time. Principally, an index is just another way of showing growth. Instead of calculating growth since the dawn of time, the index takes a base year as a starting point and calculates forwards and backwards therefrom. The base value in the starting point is set to 100 in the index and the development is measured against this figure. If the index number is 120, it means that there has been a growth of 20 percent since the base year.

In this statistics, two figures are presented as indices: 1) Index of average monthly basic earnings and 2) Index of average monthly earnings.

Job flows: Job increases and job decreases in establishments

Job increases and job decreases are based on whether the number of jobs (employments) in a given establishment has increased or decreased during the last year for a given quarter. The tables distinguish between job flows as a result of new establishments, terminated establishments, and increase/decrease in existing establishments.

Existing establishments is an establishment with employees on both points of measure. New establishments were not established or had no employees at the first point of measure. Terminated establishments had employees at the first point of measure but were terminated or had no employees at the last point of measure.

Within the different industries, job increases, and job decreases can be a result of existing establishments changing industries between the points of measure. All jobs (employments) that are moved count as job decreases in the industry they are leaving, and job increases in the industry they are entering. The establishment can have the same number of jobs (employments) on both points of measure, but we will still see a job increase in one industry and a job decrease in another. In the statbank table, there are numbers that specifically show job increase and job decrease as a result of existing establishments changing industries. This will also be the case when distinguishing job increase and job decrease by sector. Since establishments can change an industry without changing sector and vice versa, the number of jobs increases and job decreases in the tables by industry will differ from the numbers in the tables by sector.

Labour force flows: New hirings and terminated hirings

Labour force flows occur as a result of a replacement of employees in establishments. This is affected by new hires, terminated hires, and employees changing jobs. Jobs (employments) are measured by establishments, which means that employees changing establishments within the same enterprise also contributes to labour force flows. The statistics are based on two points of measure (same quarter, past and present year), meaning that short-term jobs (employments) between the points of measure are not included in the labour force flows.

Labour force flows and job flows are closely related. Job flows describe job increases and job decreases, and the establishments are the focus area. Labour force flows to focus on the employee, and the statistics allow for distinguishing numbers by sex, age, education, immigration categories, etc. In total, job increases and job decreases (job flows) add up to the same change in the number of jobs as new hires and terminated hirings in the establishments (labour force flows).

• The industrial classification is in accordance with the revised Standard Industrial Classification (NOS D 383), which is based on the EU-standard of NACE Rev. 2.
• The occupational classification is in accordance with the Standard Classification of Occupations (STYRK-08), which is based on ISCO-08 (COM).
• The sector classification is in accordance with the Classification of Institutional Sector.
• Breakdown by county and municipality is in accordance with the list of counties and municipalities as of the 1st in the middle month of a given quarter, and are classified in accordance with Classification of municipalities and Classification of county
• Education are classified in accordance with the Classification of education (NUS)
  • The group "Upper secondary education (level 3-5)" also include tertiary vocational education (level 5).