Your answers are valuable

The results of the survey are used to follow the development of the labour market and the economy. We compare the labour markets in various countries in order to measure changes over time. It is particularly important to be able to reliably compare the unemployment levels in the Nordic countries, and also with the EU countries.

The labour force survey is so important that participation is mandatory for those who have been selected to participate.

The labour force survey is carried out with basis in the Statistics Act of 21 June 2019.

You will, among other things, be asked about

  • If you have a job
  • If you are unemployed
  • If you are retired or have another form of pension
  • If you are a pupil or student
  • You can also be asked about working time, overtime, temporary employment, and health.

The survey looks at change over time, and most respondents will therefore be contacted by us eight quarters in a row, so that we can collect information about changes in your labour market situation.

A few respondents will only be interviewed once.

The interview will take approximately 5 minutes to complete,

One of our interviewers will call you soon to conduct the interview. If you want to arrange a time for us to contact you, please call or send an e-mail.

You can also answer the survey on the telephone. If you want to contact an interviewer within short time, you can call 62 88 56 08 after 3 PM.

The interview takes place in English or in Norwegian, and you can only be interviewed by phone.

If you have not yet been contacted by an interviewer, it may be because we have not been able to find your telephone number. In that case we ask you to contact us and tell us at which telephone number we can reach you.

We need replies from all over the country, and we have therefore made a sample of persons aged 15 – 89, who will represent the entire Norwegian population. The age group is wide because we want to know the labour market situation of as many persons as possible.

In order to get the correct picture of the labour market it is important that those who have been selected to participate reply. We cannot substitute you with another person, and you are important for the survey even if you do not work. For instance, if only a few of the sampled young persons reply we will get a uncertain picture of the employment among young persons.

  • All who work in Statistics Norway are bound by duty of confidentiality. We will never inform anyone about what individual persons have replied in a survey.
  • The survey is carried out with basis in the Statistics Act and the Personal Data Act. In order to make the interviews as short as possible information from some of Statistics Norway’s registers will be linked to the survey answers.
  • If you have questions regarding data protection you can contact us at personvernombud@ssb.no or you can read more on our information page about privacy.