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).

Name: Number of employments and earnings
Topic: Labour market and earnings

Division for Labour Market and Wage Statistics

Municipality, county, and the country as a whole

Two variants of the statistics are published. One with figures each quarter and one with monthly figures.

Quarterly figures

• The reference week for the number of jobs/employments and employees is the week that contains the 16th in the mid-month of the quarter (February, May, August, and November).
• Timeliness: The statistic is published 5-6 weeks after the end of the quarter (and never later than the 15. in the month following the quarter).

Monthly figures

• The reference week each month for the number of jobs/employments and employees is the week that contains the 16th. This means that the final figures for the quarters' middle month are the same as the quarterly figures (small differences may occur due to rounding/anonymisation).
• Timeliness: Preliminary figures are published 3-4 weeks after the end of the month.
• Different versions of the monthly figures: The monthly figures contain both preliminary and final figures. The first version has specific jobs that are not collected due to delays in the reporting. We, therefore, classify these as "preliminary". In the second version from a-ordningen, we use data available a month later, where everything is included. All other statistics on the labour market use the second version. Preliminary figures do not contain a) any recent employment without earnings in the reference week, but paid the month later, or b) employment without earnings in the reference week, but with earnings paid both the month before and after.

Collected and revised data are stored securely by Statistics Norway in compliance with applicable legislation on data processing.

Statistics Norway can grant access to the source data (de-identified or anonymised microdata) on which the statistics are based, for researchers and public authorities for the purposes of preparing statistical results and analyses. Access can be granted upon application and subject to conditions. Refer to the details about this at Access to data from Statistics Norway.

The purpose of the current statistics is to elucidate changes in the number of jobs (employments), employees, and earnings, as well as provide information on the development at a detailed regional level not available from the Labour force survey or the National accounts.

The statistics are based on A-ordningen. A-ordningen was established in 2015 and is a common reporting system for everyone disbursing earnings, pension, and other benefits. It is based on monthly reporting of relevant information in the form of a so-called a-melding, which is transmitted electronically to the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV), the Norwegian Tax Administration, and Statistics Norway.

• The statistics were first published in January 2018, with figures dating back to 1st quarter of 2016.
• Labour and job flows were included in August 2018 and November 2019, respectively.
• Monthly figures from January 2016 were first published in April 2020 and established as a permanent product in December 2020.
• Seasonal adjusted figures were first available in July 2021.
• Number of employments for the period May 2003 until December 2014 was published in July 2024. These are published as seasonally adjusted figures.

The statistics provide information on the state and development of the Norwegian labour market to public administration and local administration in particular, scientists, employers' and employees' organisations, and media.

No external users have access to statistics before they are released at 8 a.m. on ssb.no after at least three months’ advance notice in the release calendar. This is one of the most important principles in Statistics Norway for ensuring the equal treatment of users.

Coherence with other employment statistics

There are two different approaches that can be used when describing employment in Norway:

1. the participation of the population in the labor market
2. establishments use of labor in the production of goods and services

Compared with the establishments ' use of labor in the production of goods and services, it is common to include all employed persons who have their place of work in Norwegian establishments, regardless of age and whether the employee is registered as a resident of Norway or not. This approach is used by national accounts and structural statistics. It is also this population that is used in the current statistics on the number of employees and jobs (employments) (see the Production section for more information).

The annual registry-based employment statistics describe employment and industry division/sector at a detailed regional level.

• The statistics are based on persons registered as residents of Norway according to the National Registry and working in Norwegian establishments. The criterion is that you are expected to stay for at least six months in the country.
• Employed persons include employees and self-employed persons.
• The statistics include employed persons per 4th quarter (reference week in November).
• For employed persons with more than one job (employment), one is identified as the most important.

The main difference between the quarterly statistics on the number of jobs (employments) and the annual registry-based employment statistics is that the latter statistics also include self-employed persons, but it does not include employees on short-term stays (i.e., planned stay of fewer than six months). In addition, the registry-based employment statistics are restricted to 15-74 years, while there are no age limits in the statistics on the number of jobs (employments) and employees.

When it comes to reporting the number of jobs (employments) in the national accounts and other economic statistics, this is also based on Norwegian establishments, regardless of whether the person is a resident or not. This is the same approach as in the current statistics.

Differences between the Labour Force Survey and the Register-based

There are several differences that may lead to differences between the Labor Force Survey (LFS).and the register-based statistics. For instance, the register-based does include both residents and non-residents (commuters from other countries) in all age groups. The LFS include persons who reside in Norway between the age of 15-74 and include self-employment, but not non-resident commuters.

In addition, the development of the two may diverge at times, where some key factors include:

1. After several years we have seen that the LFS are more sensitive to changes in the labour market, and therefore we see changes earlier than in the register-based statistics.
2. The pattern of seasonality is more clear in the register-based one, leading to the seasonal figures at times developing differently between the two.
3. The seasonal adjusted figures in the LFS are a 3-month average, while for the register-based it is the reference week of the month. (For April this would be the week that contains the 16th).

Coherence with other statistics on earnings

Figures on earnings are strongly linked to the yearly statistic on earnings. The statistics include terms such as (basic) monthly earnings, which are published in both statistics.

Basic monthly earnings are derived equally and are comparable figures.

Monthly earnings have a somewhat different meaning and are not directly comparable between the two statistics. In the yearly statistics. monthly earnings include bonuses and other payments until November, while in this statistics only include bonuses and other payments in the middle month of each quarter.

Reported information on earnings go through the same controls as the two other statistics (see "Collection of data, editing and estimations").

The term jobs (employment) are also included in both statistics, but are defined differently. The statistics of jobs and employment provides the complete picture of jobs, while the yearly statistics on earnings do not include jobs with earnings not comprised by the earnings statistics nor some other groups with no earnings within the reference period. Examples of the latter groups are persons receiving benefits from NAV related to sickness or family and persons with unpaid leave or that are layed off with an expected period of under 90 days. In the yearly earnings statistics only active employments with earnings in the reference month are included. As the purpose of the earnings statistics is to measure earnings and not number of jobs, the statistics only include employments where earnings were paid as defined in the earnings statistics. Therefore, the numbers given in the earnings statistics are not a measure of number of employments in each occupation, industry, sector, etc.

The statistics are developed, produced and disseminated pursuant to Act no. 32 of 21 June 2019 relating to official statistics and Statistics Norway (the Statistics Act).

These statistics are based on the establishments’ use of labor in the production of goods and services in Norway (see the Coherence with other statistics subsection under the Background section for more information). When looking at the establishments’ use of labor in the production of goods and services, it is common to include all employed persons who have their place of work in Norwegian establishments, regardless of age and whether the employee is resident in Norway or not. This also includes foreign employees on short-term stays (non-residents).

Employed persons include employees and self-employed persons. Only the former are reported to A-ordningen. Therefore, the current statistics only cover jobs (employments) among employees.

Data sources

The main source of the statistics is A-ordningen, which is a coordinated digital collection of job (employment), income, and tax deductions for the Norwegian Tax Administration, the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV), and Statistics Norway. This means that Statistics Norway receives information about earnings and employees directly from the a-melding, which is the electronic message containing all the information collected. More information may be found here: the a-melding (skatteetaten.no).

In addition to A-ordningen, other registers are joined with the a-ordning data.

Other registers are joined with the a-ordning data. Among other things, the data are used to add further details, to decide the most important job, classification of employed person, and quality assurance. The most important sources are:

• Statistics Norway's Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises (CRE) contains information about the employed persons' work, i.e. industry, sector, organisation form and municipality.
• Statistics Norways's statistical copy of the National Registry provide information on personal characteristics as age, sex, country of origin, and immigrant category.
• The Cadastre contains information on adresses for registered residents, i.e. basic statistical unit and municipality.
• Statistics Norway's National Education Database (NUDB) provide information on highest attained education and date of completed education.
• The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration's (NAV) Arena is NAV's register of job applicants registered by case officers or self-service on NAV's web pages. This group is divided into ordinary job applicants and partly employed persons as well as vocationally disabled persons.
• The Assignment and employee register contains all assignments given to a companies or persons residing abroad with a value exceeding 20 000 NOK. The register provides information such as start and end date for a job and municipality of work.
• The Milititary Conscription Register is administered by the Norwegian Armed Forces HR and Conscription Centre and provides information on all conscripts in the Armed forces, including dates for intake or graduation.

Data Collection

Statistics receive monthly data from a-ordningen from the Norwegian Tax Administration who gathers and compiles data from the a-melding.

The deadline to submit the a-melding is the 5th of every month. If the 5th falls on a weekend or a holiday, the deadline is on the first following working day. Data are transferred to Statistics Norway on the 10th every month to take replacement a-meldings and delayed a-meldings into consideration (data were transferred on the 15th up to and including January 2018), and Statistics Norway receive all new meldings since the last transfer.

Editing

With editing we refer to control, scrutiny and alteration of data.

In a-ordningen, there are controls in several steps.

• Controls at the point of collection at the Norwegian Tax Administration.
• SSBs production system for earnings and employment

After the a-melding is received by the Tax Administration, it is checked against a range of rules and regulations (business rules) to uncover errors/omissions. Small and medium-sized enterprises are notified shortly after (ca. one minute), while large enterprises that are obligated to provide information need to wait a little while longer. The feedback from the Tax Administration contains all deviations that are uncovered together with associated documentation.

Business rules and error messages are documented on a-ordningen's web pages: the a-melding (skatteetaten.no).

Statistics Norway execute a range of controls and automatic measures to enhance data quality. The controls are separated into three different types.

1. Automatic controls and surveillance
2. Reports
3. Manual controls

In addition, continous controls are carried out throughout the year independent of new publications.

These controls have the purpose of disclosing errors or flaws that should be corrected, and they are mostly in the area of jobs (employment).

We observe that several jobs are removed because there are no earnings connected to the work performed. This will often include seasonal workers who have not performed work (and therefore have not been paid), or if they are temporary hires and are not deemed "active".

The reported earnings information are subject to the same regime of control and corrections as the yearly earnings statistics. The controls are automatic and include adjustment of back payments for salary settlements and identification of errors, omissions, and extreme values.

Obvious errors trigger a set of estimations through statistical methods. These estimations may be from an earlier period or former employment.

Calculations

The statistics is solely based on register data, meaning that the calculations consist of summing up the numbers of employees and jobs (employments) in specific groups.

Reported level of earnings is average values. Monthly basic earnings and montly earnings are averages per full-time equivalent, while average renumeration in cash is per job (employment). Only jobs with earnings according to the term used in the earnings statistics at the point of measure are taken into account when calculating average earnings. Not all jobs have earnings each month, meaning that they can be included in enumeration, not affecting the calculation of average earnings.

Monthly figures for number of jobs, employees, and average renumeration in cash are seasonally adjusted in this statistics. In addition, the monthly figures for the number of jobs and employees for non-residents are seasonally adjusted The reasoning is that monthly figures often contain a lot of seasonality, which makes it harder for the user to interpret and understand the underlying development in the market. Adjusting for seasonality helps the user understand the development, and provides users with a well-behaved series.

Seasonally adjusted figures are more uncertain, adn this should be taken into account when interpreting the results.

Method

In this product, we use X-13ARIMA-SEATS to adjust for seasonality. We adjust it separately for 17 industry groups, and for preliminary and final figures. The total for each industry is treated the same in every time series. For average remuneration in cash the series is adjusted directly, while for the two others, it is indirectly by using the underlying series and adding them up to a total amount. For further information, see the quality report.

Seasonality is observed in most industry groups. Series where seasonality is not observed are not adjusted for seasonality. All variables are considered for each industry, both preliminiary and final figures. In some cases a pattern of seasonality may be more apparent in one version than the other. An overall assessment is then made where all or none of the series are adjusted. The only unadjusted series for all employees and jobs are "Mining and quarrying" and "Unspecified industry". For non-residents the unadjusted series are "Mining and quarrying", "Electricity, water supply, sewerage, waste management", "public adm., defence, soc. security", "Financial and insurance activities" and "Unspecified industry".

In accordance with the European Statistical System (ESS) recommendations, the models behind the seasonally adjusted figures are thoroughly reviewed once a year. In the review, new patterns or changes in the old patterns are searched for. During the rest of the year, the models are fixed.

Extreme values

Before the actual seasonal adjustment, extreme values are assessed in the series. We follow the ESS guidelines (ec.europa.eu) so far as it can be done. If there is a clear interpretation of the cause of the extreme values, they are included as a regressor in the model. In the assessment of extreme values, comparisons of both preliminary and final figures are made. If extreme values are corrected in the final version, they are also included in the preliminiary version.

Handling of the Covid-19 pandemic

For the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, we follow the Eurostat guidelines, stating that the extreme cases observed, should not be included in the pattern of seasonality.

For more information on seasonal adjustment of this statistics, see "About seasonal adjustment" further down this page.

Employees of Statistics Norway have a duty of confidentiality.

Statistics Norway does not publish figures if there is a risk of the respondent’s contribution being identified. This means that, as a general rule, figures are not published if fewer than three units form the basis of a cell in a table or if the contribution of one or two respondents constitutes a very large part of the cell total.

Statistics Norway can make exceptions to the general rule if deemed necessary to meet the requirements of the EEA agreement, if the respondent is a public authority, if the respondent has consented to this, or when the information disclosed is openly accessible to the public.

More information can be found on Statistics Norway’s website under Methods in official statistics, in the ‘Confidentiality’ section.

Employees and numer of jobs

To ensure confidentiality figures are rounded for these variables. When aggregated to a higher regional level, the sum may deviate from the actual figure.

In some tables further suppression is need to avoid the disclosure of the statistical unit (establishments/enterprises). All cells containing with one or two establishments or enterprises are therefore suppressed (primary suppression). To avoid the problem that withheld data is discernable through calculations of other released data, some additional figures are suppressed (secondary suppression).

Earnings

To ensure confidentiality figures are suppressed for each cell containing fewer than 100 employments where earnings are not imputed. This ensures privacy and quality. In addition, the cost of the production of the statistics is reduced as we avoid extreme earnings from unnecessarily affecting the results.

Moreover, all figures are suppressed where dominating enterprises constitute high proportions of the employments or the sum of the monthly earnings.

Monthly figures: Comparable figures are available from May 2003 onwards.

Quarterly figures: Comparable figures are available from the 1st quarter of 2016 onwards.

Employed persons offshore

Differences related to place of work across statistics have been problematic for users. Therefore, Statistics Norway has made an adjustment in the use of this variable making several jobs (employments) earlier registered offshore as registered on the mainland from the 2nd quarter of 2018 onwards. One of the consequences of the quarterly "Number of employments and earnings" statistics was a relatively high growth in the number of jobs in Rogaland from the 1st to the 2nd quarter of 2018.

New method of estimating working hours

In the 1st quarter of 2020 there was a change in the method for estimating working hours. The change only affects the distribution of wage earners by different classifications. The categorical placement of wage earners is decided by their main job. The new method may cause a change in the main job for people having several jobs and hence their placement as wage earners by industry, occupation, place of work, etc.

The change in method does not lead to significant systematic changes between groups, and in most cases, the number of wage earners will be close to unaffected. In the 1st quarter of 2020, the change in a method caused a net change of about 3000 wage earners by industry (17 groups). In other words, the industries having a decrease in the number of wage earners had a total decrease of about 3000 wage earners. Other industries had an equivalent increase in total.

A new method for working hours

In the first quarter of 2020 there was a change in the method for estimating working hours. The change only affects the distribution of wage earners by different classifications. The categorical placement of wage earners is decided by their main job. The new method may cause a change in the main job for people having several jobs and hence their placement as wage earners by industry, occupation, place of work, etc. The change in method does not lead to significant systematic changes between groups, and in most cases, the number of wage earners will be close to unaffected. In the first quarter of 2020, the change in a method caused a net change of about 3000 wage earners by industry (17 groups). In other words, the industries having a decrease in the number of wage earners had a total decrease of about 3000 wage earners. Other industries had an equivalent increase in total.

The municipality and region reform

From the 1st quarter of 2020, the statistics is affected by the region reform (including both counties and municipalities), which was put into force on January 1. 2020. The reform mainly affects the magnitude of job- and labor force flows. Some establishments were closed due to the reform, with the employees being transferred to existing or new establishments in the new municipalities and/or counties.

Employees changing establishments will lead to an increased job- and labor force flows. Hirings in the closed establishments will be defined as terminated and hirings in the new establishments will be defined as new hirings. In addition to the municipal and regional sector, the effect is most noticeable for classifications where a large share of the employees works in the municipal and regional sector. The industries most affected are 84 Public administration, defense and social security, 85 Education and 86-88 Human health and social work activities. The reform will have an effect on job- and labor force flows throughout 2020.

The statistics are based on A-ordningen, a data source with generally good quality. Nevertheless, some errors might occur.

Coverage errors

Anyone who has employees or who pays salary, pension or other benefits must submit a-meldings. The threshold amount is 1,000 NOK per year, meaning that if the salaries exceed 1,000 to one person each year, the person is obliged to provide information on both the employment and salary in the a-melding. A-meldings must be submitted from and including the month in which the threshold amount is exceeded and for as long as payments take place.

Different versions of monthly figures: Monthly figures include both preliminary and final figures. In the first version of the monthly figures fra the a-ordning, some jobs/employees are not captured due to reporting delays. We, therefore, refer to the figures based on this version as preliminary figures. In the final figures we use the second version of the a-ordning. This version is available one month later and contains the previously mentioned jobs/employees. The ordinary labour market statistics based on the a-ordning are all based on the second version. To use the first version exclusively allows earlier publication. Employees/jobs that are not captured in the first version are delayed a-meldings, replacement a-meldings for earlier months, and employments with various delays. Employments with various delays include a) employments with recent start date without earnings in the reference week of the current month, but earnings in the following month and b) employments without earnings in the reference week within the current month, but with payed salary in the previous and following month.

Measurement and processing errors

Some errors might occur due to incorrect reporting of the information (measurement error). Furthermore, errors might occur as the result of data processing conducted at Statistics Norway (processing error). Examples of the latter may be which jobs are determined as active. Information about earnings being the main criteria for assessment, where the group “freelancers” is an example where they are only reported when earnings has been paid, making it difficult to assess whether work has been performed.

There are indications of gradual improvement in the reporting to A-ordningen from 2015 to 2016, even though the reporting during the first year of A-ordningen (2015) is considered as being good. Therefore, figures are published from 1st quarter 2016 onwards.

More uncertainty is expected in the number of employees and jobs (employments) at a detailed regional level than at a more aggregated level (e.g., the country as a whole). Even if reporting has been correct, regional reforms may lead to significant changes at certain levels.

Error of non-response

Not relevant

Sample error

Not relevant

A revision is a planned change to figures that have already been published, for example when releasing final figures as a follow-up to published preliminary figures. See also Statistics Norway’s principles for revisions.

Revisions in previously published seasonally adjusted figures can take place when new observations (or revised previous observations) are included in the basis of calculation. The scope of the revision is usually greatest in the most relevant part (last 1–2 years) of seasonally adjusted time series. A corresponding revision in trends is also typical, particularly at the end of the time series. The extent of the revision of trends and seasonally adjusted figures is partly determined by the revision policy, see Section 4 of the European Statistical System (ESS) Guidelines on Seasonal Adjustment on the Eurostat website. For more information on the revision of seasonally adjusted figures, see the ‘About seasonal adjustment’ section in the relevant statistics.

Monthly and quarterly time series are often characterized by considerable seasonal variations, which might complicate their interpretation. Such time series are therefore subjected to a process of seasonal adjustment in order to remove the effects of these seasonal fluctuations. Once data have been adjusted for seasonal effects by X-13ARIMA-SEATS or some other seasonal adjustment tool, a clearer picture of the time series emerges.

For more information on seasonal adjustment: metadata on methods: seasonal adjustment.

In many industries, we see variation in the numbers that appear with a certain regularity each year. We find good examples of this in the industry agriculture, forestry and fishing, where the numbers of jobs increase significantly in August and December, with a corresponding decline in November and January. In order to follow this underlying development from month to month, the figures are seasonally adjusted.

Series that are seasonally adjusted

The following monthly time series are seasonally adjusted separately for 17 industry division and for preliminary and final figures:

• Number of jobs (employment)
• Number of employees
• Average remuneration in cash (NOK)

The totals for all the industries are treated a little differently in the various time series. For average remuneration in cash, the total is seasonally adjusted directly, while the total of the other two time series are made indirectly by aggregating the underlying seasonally adjusted series up to a total.

We find seasonal patterns in most industries. If seasonal pattern is not identified, the series will not be seasonal adjusted. All statistical variables are being reviewed together for each industry, both preliminary and final figures. In some cases, there will be clear seasonal patterns in one version and more uncertain seasonal patterns in another version. An overall assessment is then made, where either all or none of the series are seasonally adjusted. The only series that are not seasonal adjusted for all epmloyees and jobs are the Mining and quarrying industry as well as Unspecified industries, and these are therefore not adjusted in any of the series. For non-residents the series that are not seasonal adjusted are Mining and quarrying, Electricity, water supply, sewerage, waste management, public adm., defence, soc. security, Financial and insurance activities and Unspecified industry.

Before the seasonal adjustment can be made the series must be precorrected for, among other things, extreme values. We follow the European Statistical System (ESS) guidelines (ec.europa.eu) as far as possible. If there is a clear interpretation of the cause of the extreme value, then they will be included as explanatory variables (regressor) in the model. In the assessment of extreme values, comparisons have been made on both preliminary and final figures. If extreme values have been corrected in the final version, it has been decided to include them in the preliminary version.

With regard to the handling of the corona crisis in the seasonal adjustment, we follow Eurostat’s guidelines (github.com). The guidelines states that the effect of the corona crisis should not be included in the basis of the seasonal pattern. That means that for the time being we assume that the seasonal pattern in unchanged after February 2020, and that we correct for the systematic seasonal variation calculated on data before the corona crisis.

Handling extreme values

The series are controlled for extreme values. Identified extremes are explained/modelled using all available information. When there is a clear interpretation of the cause of the extreme values, they are included as a regressor in the model.

Calendar adjustment

The model checks for calendar days.

Methods for working day adjustment

The model checks for working days.

Adjustment for moving holidays

The model checks for moving holidays.

Adjustment for leap year

The model checks for leap year effects.

Choice of model

To pre-correct, it is necessary to choose an ARIMA-model and decide whether data should be log-transformed or not.

• All series are log-transformed.

Decomposition routines

The decomposition routine specifies how the trend-, seasonal- and irregular component are decomposed. The most common decompositions are additive, multiplicative and log additive.

Multiplicative decomposition is used in this model. That is because the corona crisis can sometimes cause large absolute changes in the level of a series, and an additive decomposition can give unrealistic changes in certain cases. Since a multiplicative decomposition gives a percentage adjustment of the series, this is chosen for all series.

Optimal seasonal filters and filter lengths are automatically selected by Jdemetra+.

Choice of seasonal adjustment approach

X-13ARIMA-SEATS

Consistency between raw and seasonally adjusted data

In some series it is preferred that, for example, the sum of monthly seasonally adjusted figures for a year should be identical to the sum of monthly figures in the original raw series.

No consistency conditions are imposed.

Consistency between aggregate/definition of seasonally adjusted data

In some series, consistency between seasonally adjusted totals and the original series is imposed. For some series there is also a special relationship between the different series, e.g. GDP which equals production minus intermediate consumption.

No consistency conditions are imposed.

Direct versus indirect approach

Direct seasonal adjustment is performed if the total of the time series, including aggregates, are seasonally adjusted on an individual basis. Indirect seasonal adjustment is performed if the seasonally adjusted estimate for a time series is derived by combining the estimates for two or more directly adjusted series.

The variable average remuneration in cash uses a direct method, where total and associated aggregates are seasonally adjusted separately. Indirect methods are used for the variables number of employees and number of jobs, where the components are seasonally adjusted directly with the same approach and software. The totals are calculated by aggregating the seasonally adjusted components.

Horizon for estimating the model and the correction factors

When performing seasonal adjustment of a time series, it is possible to choose the period to be used in estimating the model and the correction factors. Correction factors are the factors used in the pre-treatment and seasonal adjustment of the series.

The whole time series is used to estimate the model and the correction factors. Due to recommended practice regarding handling the corona crisis in the seasonal adjustment, only data from January 2016 to February 2020 and data from april 2022 are used.

General revision policy

Seasonally adjusted data may change due to a revision of the unadjusted (raw) data or the addition of new data. Such changes are called revisions, and there are several ways to deal with the problem of revisions when publishing seasonally adjusted statistics.

In accordance with recommendations from the ESS, the models behind the seasonally adjusted figures will be subject to a thorough review once a year.

Concurrent versus current adjustment

The model, filters, outliers, and regression parameters are re-identified and re-estimated continuously as new or revised data become available.

Horizon for published revisions

The whole time series are revised when seasonal factors are re-estimated.

Evaluation of seasonally adjustment data

Continuous/periodical evaluation using standard measures proposed by different seasonal adjustment tools.

Quality measures for seasonal adjustment

The table below provides some indicators of the quality of the seasonal adjusment:

Quality indicators (Excel)

For more information on the quality indicators in the table see: metadata on methods: seasonal adjustment.

Seasonal adjustment of short series

All series are short and will therefore be studied carefully.

Handling the corona crisis

Following the Corona crisis that started in the 1st quarter of 2020, the seasonal adjustment of number of employments and earnings follows the Eurostat guidelines for how to treat this extraordinary event. The result being that the effect of the Corona crisis is not a part of the foundation of the seasonal patterns. We assume that the seasonal pattern is unchanged, and that we correct for the systematic seasonal variation calculated on data before the corona crisis.

Data availability

Unadjusted figures (original series or raw data) and seasonally adjusted data are available.