Attachment to employment, education and welfare benefits

Name: Attachment to employment, education and welfare benefits

Topic: Labour market and earnings

Division for Labour Market and Wage Statistics

The statistics mainly include country-level figures. However, table 13678 contains county figures, while tables 13556 and 13563 include figures by municipality and county. The latter also has figures by regions, police districts, child welfare and family counselling regions, centrality, economic regions and electoral districts.

Annual. Preliminary figures are published in August/September. Final figures are published in December. Please see "Revision" under "Accuracy and reliability" for more information on preliminary and final figures.

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 system for assuring the quality of Norwegian official statistics is based on quality requirements in the Statistics Act and in the European Statistics Code of Practice. The annual report on the quality of official statistics assesses compliance with the quality requirements for all official statistics as a whole.

The National programme for official statistics sets the framework for the areas Statistics Norway and other public authorities produce statistics on. The programme defines and outlines official statistics.

Further information about the system for quality in official statistics can be found at ssb.no.

The main purpose of the statistics is primarily to break down the large and heterogeneous group of people who are outside the labour force, by dividing them into main groups of statuses. This will indicate how far away from employment they are and what public benefits they receive. The statistics also describes how employed persons combine employment with education or receiving welfare benefits.

The statistics was first published in December 2018 with figures going back to 2008.

Public administration, researchers and the media are the most central users of the statistics.

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 register-based statistics

The statistics "Attachment to employment, education and welfare benefits" provide figures for employed persons, registered unemployed persons, the number of persons in education and on various welfare benefits such as disability benefits, recipients of contractual and retirement pension. These are figures that are also published in other statistics based on many of the same data sources (including a-ordningen, education statistics and Nav's registers of unemployed persons and persons on various measures and welfare benefits), for example statistics on register-based employment, register-based employment among immigrants and recipients of various welfare benefits. Nevertheless, the figures in the statistics "Attachment to employment, education and welfare benefits" will not be fully comparable with the other annual register-based statistics.

Statistics on employed persons

Register-based employment statistics and statistics on employed persons among immigrants have an age limit of 15–74 years. The statistics on "Attachment to employment, education and welfare benefits" have an age limit of 15 years and over and will therefore also be able to shed light on the status of persons above the age of 74 years.

Register-based employment statistics are published annually in March (year t+1). At this time, the latest year's (t) figures from the tax return register are not available, which means that figures for self-employed persons from the previous year (year t-1) are used. In the Personal Data System (SFP), we wait until the tax return register for the reference year is ready for the final figures. This means that we get a somewhat different composition of people who are included as employed than in register-based employment statistics. Tables of employed persons by age, sex, region, etc. will therefore give somewhat different figures in the statistics "Attachment to employment, education and welfare benefits" than from register-based employment statistics.

When publishing register-based employment statistics in March, data on the population's educational level for year t is also not available. Some tables belonging to the register-based employment statistics are thus published with educational level from t-1, while other tables in the same statistics are not updated with the latest year before the education file for year t is ready in June in t+1. It is the same education file that is included in the publication of preliminary figures in August/September t+1 in the statistics on attachment to employment, education and welfare benefits.

The distribution of employed persons by highest attained educational level will therefore also differ somewhat from some of the corresponding tables in the register-based employment statistics.

More information about employment in various Statistics Norway statistics is provided in the article "What do the various employment statistics show?" (in Norwegian).

Statistics on employees and earnings

The statistics "Attachment to employment, education and welfare benefits" use the same definitions of terms for monthly earnings and basic monthly earnings as Statistics Norway's annual earnings statistics (see "Definitions of the main concepts and variables" under "Definitions"). Basic monthly earnings are also defined in the same way as in the statistics "Number of employments and earnings".

In all three statistics, basic monthly earnings and monthly earnings are selected per job (statistical unit). Monthly earnings are not summed per person for those with multiple jobs.

In the annual earnings statistics and the statistics "Number of employments and earnings", both main and secondary jobs are the basis for the earnings figures, while table 12837 under "Attachment to employment, education and welfare benefits" only includes earnings in the main job, and earnings in any secondary jobs are excluded. This difference has an impact on the calculated earnings level between the statistics.

In addition, the annual earnings statistics only include jobs with pay, while the statistics "Attachment to employment, education and welfare benefits", like "Number of employments and earnings", also include employees with jobs where other types of earnings are paid than those included in the annual earnings statistics, as well as some groups who have not received earnings in the statistical month. The latter group includes, among others, people who receive benefits from Nav that replace earnings (sickness, parental and pregnancy benefits) as well as unpaid leave and layoffs with an expected duration of less than 90 days. These are included in the counts of employees but are not included in the calculation of earnings.

The population between the three statistics also differ. The statistics "Attachment to employment, education and welfare benefits" are limited to the population of Norway, i.e. persons registered as residents in the National Population Register (the criterion is that one is expected to reside in the country for at least six months). The annual earnings statistics and the statistics "Number of employments and earnings", on the other hand, include both residents and non-residents in all age groups who work in companies native to Norway. The latter two statistics only include employees, and not the self-employed, as the employment figures in "Attachment to employment, education and welfare benefits" do.

Statistics on welfare benefits

Statistics Norway publishes several statistics about recipients of various welfare benefits and statistics about types of income:

• The statistics on recipients of retirement pension provide an overview of people with a positive decision on and payment of retirement pension from the National Insurance Scheme for at least one month during the year.
• The statistics on recipients of disability benefits provide a description of persons who have received a positive decision on disability benefits from the National Insurance Scheme for at least one month during the year. The definition is independent of whether the person actually receives a payment or not. The same definition applies to the figures for recipients of disability benefits in the statistics on living conditions of disabled people.
• The statistics on social assistance include everyone who receives social assistance in the relevant year.

In addition to different populations and measurement methods, these statistics are not combined with statuses such as employment, registered unemployment and ordinary education within the conceptual framework used in labour market statistics (in line with ILO recommendations for prioritising status inside and outside of the labour force). There will therefore be discrepancies between the number of people receiving various welfare benefits in these statistics and other statistics on disability benefits, retirement pensions etc.

Statistics where prioritised labour force status is included

The variable prioritised labour force status is collated with other data sources in the StatBank tables 13346, 13347, 13348 and 13349 belonging to the statistics "Child Welfare". This results in a new status with different categories and a different prioritised order: "In higher education", "In lower education", "Employed", "Recipients of health-related benefits", "Recipients of other benefits", "Dead/emigrated" and "Other".

Coherence with the Labour Force Survey (LFS)

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a survey based on a sample of people, while the register statistics mentioned in the section above are based on data reported by, among others, employers, educational institutions and Nav. This leads to several discrepancies between the sources. For more information about the LFS, see the technical documentation of the LFS after the 2021 revision, which also provides an overview of all time series breaks from 1972 to 2021 (in Norwegian).

Difference in who is included as employed persons

These are some of the reasons for the difference in the number of employed persons between the register statistics and the LFS starting from the 2015 cohort:

• Differences in measurement method: The LFS is an interview survey among people between 15 and 74 years of age (15 to 89 from 2021 onwards), while a-ordningen is based on companies' reporting of employees and earnings through a-ordningen.
• The LFS covers all months of the quarter, while the register-based employment statistics only cover the middle month of the 4th quarter (3rd week of November).
• The register-based employment statistics also include conscripts, while this group is not included in the LFS as of 2021.
• The register-based employment statistics only include freelancers/contractors with fixed or hourly wages, while the LFS includes all freelancers/contractors with gainful employment in the reference week.
• The LFS and statistics based on a-ordningen classify layoffs and changes in layoffs in slightly different ways. One of the differences is that employed persons with layoffs with an expected duration of more than 90 days are not counted as employed persons in the register-based employment statistics, while they are counted as employed in the LFS for the first 90 days nevertheless. This primarily affects periods with many layoffs, such as during the corona pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

Different information about people outside the labour force

In the LFS there are no explicit questions about whether the person is receiving welfare benefits. Those classified in the LFS as unemployed or outside the labour force are asked what they perceive as their main activity, where the answer options include "student/school pupil", "homeworking", "retired" and "disabled". The employed persons are given status according to whether they work full-time, long-term part-time or short-term part-time.

Analyses have been made of the correspondence between status and possibly main activity in the LFS (4th quarter) and prioritised labour force status the Personal Data System (SFP) used in these statistics (November) among persons who responded to the LFS.

In advance, one could expect certain discrepancies, mainly due to different reference periods (all weeks in the quarter in the LFS) and different definitions of the unemployed. In the LFS, a person is classified as unemployed based on criteria regarding job search and availability, while the corresponding status in the SFP (registered unemployed) is determined on the basis of registered fully unemployed with Nav. Another reason for certain discrepancies between the LFS and the SFP is that the register statistics will only capture employment among persons with a place of work in Norway. If a person, for example, lives in Østfold and works in Sweden, he or she will be captured as employed in the LFS, while the same person in the register data will appear as not employed. Differences between the unemployed in the register (Nav) and the LFS are described in the article "Why different unemployment figures?" (in Norwegian).

The analyses show that the vast majority of LFS respondents had a similar status in the LFS and the SFP when it came to being either inside or outside of the labour force. Among those inside the labour force in both the LFS and the SFP, there was a high degree of overlap in status when it came to those employed, but some discrepancies when it came to unemployment. This is related to the different definitions of unemployed. Among those outside the labour force in both the LFS and the SFP, there was also a high degree of agreement between status in the SFP and what respondents stated as their main activity in the LFS.

Among the small group of LFS respondents who had an unknown status in the SFP, about half were classified as employed in the LFS. Explanations for this discrepancy may include the difference in the reference periods or that these jobs have been so limited that they have not been captured in the SFP via the various registers. Of the LFS respondents with an unknown status in the SFP and who were outside the labour force in the LFS, over half reported homeworking as their main activity in the LFS. People who only work from home will naturally have an unknown status in the SFP.

Differences in the number of NEETs

When it comes to people aged 15–29 who are "Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET)", the LFS shows almost half as many people in the NEET group as the register figures in the SFP do.

According to a report from 2014 (PDF) (in Norwegian), the administrative registers do not capture all activity in employment and education/training. The LFS and the register show the same size of the share of employed people in the age group 15–29 years. Where the two statistics diverge most from each other, however, is for the group in ordinary education. The LFS shows a higher number of people in education than the register does. The LFS picks up informal education that is not part of the administrative register. In addition, it may be related to the fact that the reference periods are different between the two data sources. More people end up in NEET in the 3rd quarter than in the rest of the year, and the LFS includes all weeks of the year, while the register figures refer to the third week of November.

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).

The statistics are included in the National Programme for Official Statistics, main area Employment and earnings, sub-area Employment, earnings and labour costs.

The time-series starts in 2008.

The statistics include people aged 15 and older who are registered as residents in the Population Register. The criterion is that they are expected to stay in the country for at least six months.

Data sources

The figures in the statistics are based on information from the Personal Data System (SFP). This system consists of registers containing data on areas such as the labour market, educational activity and welfare benefits that are intended to compensate for lack of earned income. The SFP also contains demographic background variables, such as sex and age. Most variables are obtained directly from the various registers, while some are constructed by combining data from different sources. The time of measurement is the 4th quarter of each year.

The most important data sources in the SFP are Statistics Norway's register-based employment statistics and education statistics (ongoing education/in ordinary education and highest educational level achieved), the National Population Register, the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Organisation’s (Nav) registers of unemployed and people on various measures and welfare benefits, and the National Introduction Register (NIR).

The figures for employees up to and including 2014 were built on various public registers, the most important being the State Register of Employers and Employees Register (the Ee Register) produced by Nav and the Norwegian Tax Administration’s wage totals for the End of the Year Certificate Register (the LTO register). The reference week was the 3rd week of November.

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. The reference week then became the week that contains 16 November, which is generally the 3rd week of November. Information on (agreed) working hours, vacancy percentage and (agreed) monthly salary is also based on reporting to the a-ordningen.

In addition to a-ordningen, other registers are used, the most important being the Tax Return Register administered by the Norwegian Tax Administration, the Register of Conscripts from the Norwegian Armed Forces HR and Conscription Centre and the Central Coordinating Register for Legal Entities. Read more about the data sources for employed persons in "About the statistics" for register-based employment statistics.

Information on self-employed is retrieved from an annual file based on tax returns to the Norwegian Tax Administration. This means that we only have information about business income during the year, and not in the reference week itself, in addition to the fact that the register has a long production time. To improve the timeliness of the statistics, information about self-employed people from the year before the statistical year is used in the preliminary figures. The final figures use information from the statistical year. Read more about this in the section "Revision" under "Accuracy and reliability".

Figures for registered unemployed and ordinary participants of unemployment measures are based on data from Nav's case processing system, ARENA (formerly SOFA-applicant). The register includes people registered as fully unemployed, ordinary participants of unemployment measures, people registered with reduced capability for work, and recipients of unemployment benefits, employment scheme benefits and work assessment allowance. The reference period from which we collect data is primarily November. However, registered unemployed are measured in the third week of November (from 2015 onwards further defined as the week containing16 November). A prioritisation rule is also applied, where individuals who are both employees and unemployed during the reference week are classified as employees.

Until 2016, data on participation in the introduction programme was collected from the municipalities through KOSTRA. Most municipalities have their own systems from which data was retrieved, while some municipalities reported on an electronic form. As of 2017, data is based on information reported from the municipalities to the National Introduction Register (NIR) administered by the Norwegian Directorate of Integration and Diversity (IMDi). The basis for reporting from the municipalities' systems is the same throughout the period, even though the reporting itself has changed from the form. The reference week is the week of 16 November.

The data basis for the population's educational attainment (highest achieved educational level) and ongoing education is extracted from the Statistics Norway's National Education Database (NUDB). The education information applies as of 1 October in the statistical year.

Information on recipients of sickness benefits in the week containing 16 November is obtained from Nav. As of the first quarter of 2020, when the new case processing system for sickness benefits was implemented, Nav bases their sickness benefits data on a combination of the old Infotrygd system and the nye case processing system for sickness benefits.

Data on recipients in November of disability benefits, retirement, contractual and survivors' incl. children’s pensions are based on information from Nav up to and including the 2018 cohort. From the 2019 cohort, information on recipients is obtained from a-ordningen. The figures in a-ordningen are based on reporting from Nav.

Data on recipients of supplementary benefits, cash-for-care benefits and transitional benefits for single parents in November is also retrieved from Nav from the relevant case processing systems through Nav's Data Warehouse.

Nav offices in all municipalities in the country report recipients of social/financial assistance through the KOSTRA form. In these statistics, we use information about recipients in November.

The data source for receipt of pensions from others than Nav/National Insurance Scheme is a collection of selected records in the Norwegian Tax Administration’s wage totals for the End of the Year Certificate Register (the LTO register) up to and including 2014. As of the 2015 statistical year, corresponding information is obtained from draft tax returns reported to the Norwegian Tax Administration. This information is pre-filled after reporting from employers, pension payers, etc. through a-ordningen. The reference period is the entire year.

The following information is based on information from the National Population Register:

• Resident status
  • The reference date is the last day of the statistical month (November).
• Place of residence
  • Information on place of residence is at the end of the reference week for the years 2008–2014 (3rd week of November).
  • From 2015, place of residence is recorded at the end of the statistical month (November).
• Sex
  • The reference date is the last day of the statistical month (November).
• Age
  • From 2008, information on age is at the end of the reference week (3rd week of November).
  • Starting with the 2015 cohort, age is calculated as of 16 November.
• Immigration category and country background
  • The reference date is 1 January in the year following the statistical year (t+1).
• Family type, number of children and the children's ages
  • The reference date is 1 January in the year following the statistical year (t+1).

See the section on "Comparability over time and space" for more detailed information on how extracts from the various data sources have changed over time.

Also see the descriptions of all the different statuses in microdata.no with the prefix "ARBSTATUS": Variables | microdata.no.

Sampling

Not relevant

Collection of data

Data is not collected solely for these statistics. It is rather based on a number of different registers. These include, among others, a-ordningen, Statistics Norway's education statistics, the National Population Register and Nav's registers of the unemployed and ordinary participants of unemployment measures and recipients of welfare benefits as described in the section on "Data sources".

Editing

Editing is defined here as checking, examining and amending data. Checks carried out for employees in a-ordningen are described in "About the statistics" for the register-based employment statistics. Business rules and error messages are documented on a-ordningen’s website (skatteetaten.no).

Most 15-year-olds and some 16-year-olds have not yet completed compulsory school, but in the statistics they are still coded as having completed basic school level (elementary school). This is done for the tables of educational attainment to better show the main features of the labour market attachment and the level of educational attainment.

Estimations

Educational attainment

Statistics Norway lacks information on educational attainment for some immigrants. For this group, Statistics Norway has estimated (imputed) the level of education to provide better statistics on the aggregate level of educational attainment for immigrants. For a detailed description of the imputation method, see Jentoft (2014) and statistics on the population's educational attainment.

Contractual working hours

There are some shortcomings in the reporting of contractual percentage of full-time equivalent. This applies particularly to employees paid by the hour. Statistics Norway has therefore developed a new method that provides better information on working hours, see the article "Method for improving information on working hours in a-ordningen" (in Norwegian).

For the employment type "Freelancers, contractors and fee recipients", there is no requirement to report contractual percentage of full-time equivalent. For self-employed persons, working hours are imputed from the Labour Force Survey (LFS).

Interviewers and everyone who works at Statistics Norway have a duty of confidentiality. Statistics Norway has its own data protection officer.

Statistics Norway does not publish figures where there is a risk of identifying individual data about persons or households.

The "rounding up/down" method is used in these statistics to ensure this by rounding cells in StatBank tables containing "1" or "2" to "0" or "3".

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

Figures are available back to 2008. Some breaks in the time series are described below.

Employed persons

Figures on employed persons from 2015 are based on a new data source for employees. The main source until 2014 was the State Register of Employers and Employees Register (the Ee Register) produced by Nav. In 2015, reporting to this register was coordinated with reporting of salary and personnel data to the Tax Administration and Statistics Norway. The joint reporting system is called the a-ordningen. A-ordningen generally provides a better data source because it is more accurate at the individual level and it covers more employments/jobs than the Ee register. However, changes in the data source mean that the figures for employed persons starting from 2015 are not comparable to previous years. You can find more information about changes in the data source of register-based employment statistics in this article (in Norwegian).

Participants in the introduction programme for immigrants

The introduction programme for newly arrived immigrants is an integration policy measure that all Norwegian municipalities are obliged to offer to newly arrived refugees and their family members in accordance with the Integration Act (Act of 11 June 2020 No. 127). For those who settled before 1 January 2021, the Introduction Act (Act of 4 July 2003 No. 80) still applies. The new Integration Act differs from the Introduction Act in a number of areas. Among other things, the duration of the programme is adjusted, so that participants can now have both shorter and significantly longer integration courses than before. Read more about this in the article "The introduction scheme is changing" (in Norwegian).

Participation in the introduction programme in the reference week is an extract from the annual files used in the statistics on the introduction programme for immigrants. In the StatBank tables 12424, 12425 and 12836 this is included as a separate category under level 3 of prioritised labour force status. In the remaining tables, participants in the introduction programme are counted as part of the group "Participants in labour market measures".

Up to and including 2016, data was collected from the municipalities through KOSTRA. Most municipalities have their own data systems from which data was retrieved, while some municipalities reported on an electronic form. Those who had started the introduction programme in or before the reference week, as well as those who had finished in or after the reference week, were considered participants in the introduction programme. The KOSTRA form only contained tick marks for which measures the person had participated in during the year, without dating these, so this was not taken into account in the data extract.

As of 2017, data is based on information reported by municipalities to the National Introduction Register (NIR) owned by the Norwegian Directorate for Integration and Diversity (IMDi). The information from the local authorities’ case management system is the source for the whole period 2008–onwards, although the reporting itself differs.

For the period 2017–2019 in the statistics "Attachment to employment, education and welfare benefits", active participants in the introduction programme were defined by being registered with a measure as part of the introduction programme with a start date before or during the reference week, or a completion date after the reference week.

After further clarification with the registry owner IMDi, as of 2020 onwards a "proxy start date" is used to identify active participants in the reference week. The earliest of the following dates is used:

• the date of which the completion deadline is estimated from
• the start date of being granted for the first time the right and obligation to participate in the programme
• the start date of first being registered with a measure as part of the introduction programme

In addition, a "proxy completion date" is used to identify those who have completed the induction programme:

• the completion data
• date of completion deadline if the completion date is zero

Consequently, the new definition resulted in an increase from approximately 6,700 to 7,700 people who had participation in the introduction programme as their prioritised labour force status in 2020.

Sickness benefits

Statistics Norway uses data on recipients in the reference week (3rd week of November) from Nav. Up until the statistical year 2021, we received data for the reference week in February of the following year. This meant that some subsequent registrations of claims submitted by employers were missing up to three months after the absence.

Starting in January 2023, Statistics Norway received sickness benefits data monthly instead of annually and received monthly files for 2020–2022. For the publication of final figures for 2022 in January 2024, the files for January–May 2023 in addition to November–December 2022 were therefore used to extract sickness benefit recipients in the reference week to include subsequent registrations. The change resulted in an increase of around 37,000 sickness benefit recipients, but almost all of whom have employment as their prioritised labour force status. Thus, the change mainly affects the category for "Other employed" on level 3 of prioritised labour force status in the Statbank, where we see an increase of over 25,000 from 2021 to 2022.

Nav adopted a new case processing system for the payment of sickness benefits as of the first quarter of 2020. This means that Nav's sickness benefits data will now be based on a combination of the old Infotrygd and the new case processing system for sickness benefits. In the long term, it is planned that Infotrygd will be phased out and that all cases will be handled in one system. In addition to the fact that the inclusion of several monthly files means that the figures are not directly comparable backwards in time, the transition to a new data source also affects comparability.

Work assessment allowance

On 1 March 2010, rehabilitation benefits (attføringspenger), rehabilitation benefits (rehabiliteringspenger) and time-limited disability benefits were replaced by work assessment allowance (AAP). Therefore, in these statistics, the number of recipients of AAP represents the sum of recipients of these three benefits in the years before 2010.

Disability benefits

In the years 2008–2009, disability benefits include both temporary and permanent disability pensions. After changes in the disability scheme from 1 January 2015, disability pension was replaced with disability benefits. In this statistic, the term "disability benefits" is used throughout the time series and also includes disability pension in the years before 2015. This is to ensure consistency in the grouping of statuses.

Survivor's pension incl. children’s pension

From 1 January 2024, a time‑limited adjustment allowance was introduced to replace the previous permanent survivor’s pension persons who had lost their spouse, partner or cohabitant with whom they had joint children. This new adjustment allowance is included in the underlying data from the 2024 reference year onwards.

The quality of measurements of movements between the different statuses is considered good.

As of 2015, a-ordningen is the main source for employed persons in these statistics. The quality of a-ordningen is considered good and better than in previous sources. A-ordningen generally provides a better data source in that it is more correct at the individual level and that it covers more employments/job than what was the main source up to and including 2014 (Nav's Employer and Employee Register). There are several reasons to why the quality has improved. With a-ordningen, we have a coherent set of regulations that enforce more correct reporting. Information about employments/jobs and earnings now comes from the same source (a-ordningen), and not from different sources as before. In addition, we receive more frequent reporting of earnings. Coherence in the reporting also provides better opportunities for control and follow-up with several variables. Even though the quality is considered good, there may still be errors and shortcomings in the data.

The figures on registered fully unemployed people are considered relatively reliable. The main reason for this is that the right to unemployment benefits ceases if the person concerned does not report to their local Nav office at regular intervals. This means that the ARENA register will be updated relatively continuously with the latest information about each individual job seeker. Experience shows that there are still some who do not report to Nav that they have had any work in the past 2 weeks. The number is modest, but these should not have been classified as fully unemployed. There will be a number of unemployed people who do not register with Nav, and thus are not included in ARENA. This results in a certain degree of underreporting. Typical examples are young people, students and others without a claim to unemployment benefits. On the other hand, there may also be cases where people registered with Nav no longer actually qualify as job seekers.

The quality of other figures on activities and welfare benefits outside the labour force is also considered good. The figures are based on data from Nav's registers and KOSTRA reporting and are used to produce several statistics in Statistics Norway.

Municipality and county of residence registered in the National Population Register are used in the tables with distribution by region. In the age group 15–29 years, some of the youngest will still be registered with their guardians, even if they have moved from home. This may particularly apply to people who move to study, since it is voluntary to report change in place of residence for students (skatteetaten.no) (in Norwegian).

Measurement and processing errors

Errors/deficiencies may occur because those required to provide information misinterpret and report incorrectly (measurement error). There is some indication of a gradual improvement in reporting in a-ordningen from 2015 to 2016, although reporting is considered good also in the year of introduction (2015). Gradually improved reporting could thus affect the rate of change in the number of employees and the number of employment relationships (jobs) between 2015 and 2016.

Furthermore, errors may occur due to the processing of the data in Statistics Norway (processing errors). An example of the latter could be Statistics Norway's assessment of which employment relationships should be considered active. Information about earnings is used here as the main criterion. For the group "freelancers/contractors etc." (also includes board members, elected officials, foster parents, support contacts, people with care pay etc.), there is, for example, only a requirement to report employments/jobs in a-ordningen when earnings are paid, and it is therefore difficult to identify when the work has actually been performed. This means that some people in this group are not included in the statistics.

Dropout error

In register data, individual pieces of information may be omitted. Personal identification variables will rarely be missing since this is information that everyone must have in registers such as the National Population Register.

Regarding status information, there may be missing (or delayed) registrations/de-registrations of employments/jobs from employers. Similarly, there may be missing or delayed registrations/de-registrations of benefit recipients in the benefit registers, but since this concerns payments of money, there is reason to believe that the quality of benefit registers is generally good.

Statistics Norway lacks reporting on the number of students from a few schools. This most significantly affects the number and percentage not in employment, education or training (NEET) in some small municipalities.

Some people lack registration of status in SFP. These end up in the group "Unknown status" in the statistics. There may be several reasons for missing information about status, including:

• emigration without notifying the National Population Register (read more about this in the report "Unregistered emigration from Norway" (PDF) in Norwegian)
• some support schemes (social/financial assistance, cash-for-care benefits) are given to the entire household, and may be registered to another person in the household
• some activities are not included in the data base, for example adult education

For more information about this group, please see the report "The group with unknown status in the Personal Data System (SFP)" (PDF) and the article "Over 100,000 youth in the NEET group – half of them cannot be found in the registers" (both in Norwegian).

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.

To improve the timeliness of the statistics «Attachment to employment, education and welfare benefits», Statistics Norway started publishing preliminary figures in 2020 (statistical year 2019). In Statbank, the preliminary figures will be overwritten when the final figures are available.

In contrast to final figures, the preliminary figures are partly based on information from the year prior to the statistical year. More specifically, this applies to self-employed persons, who are identified using tax return information from the Tax Return Register (administered by the Norwegian Tax Administration). However, the production time of this registry is time consuming. Information from the year prior to the reference year is therefore utilized in the preliminary figures until the updated registry is available. This mismatch in time of measurement, results in some uncertainty in the figures. Some individuals can wrongly be classified as employed persons, even if they were not working in the reference year. On the other hand, some may be counted as not employed persons, even though they became self-employed in the reference year.

The statistics is updated with final figures when information on self-employed persons from the statistical year is available.

Below follows a list of additional updates made to the time-series retroactively:

• On 19 December 2022, for the publication of final figures for 2021, a new extraction from Nav’s case‑processing system ARENA (formerly SOFA-applicant) was used for the 2020 and 2021 cohorts. This was to include post‑registrations made during the COVID‑19 pandemic, when Nav received a high volume of applications for temporary layoffs and unemployment benefits. The changes affected who was classified as a recipient of unemployment benefits. In the 2020 cohort, there were approximately 3,000 more individuals whose prioritised labour force status became recipients of unemployment benefits.
• On 28 February 2023, the final figures for 2021 were revised. The figures published on 19 December 2022 were missing a small number of observations with self‑employed persons due to delayed extraction from the tax return register. In this case, timeliness was given greater weight than accuracy, as the omissions were minimal. The revised figures including all self‑employed persons resulted in approximately 220 more employed persons. Most of these had their prioritised labour market status changed from (1) unknown status to employment, or (2) recipient of retirement pension to a combination of employment and retirement pension.
• On 21 January 2025, all tables belonging to the statistics were updated retroactively in connection with the publication of final figures for 2023. This primarily affected country background and who is classified as an immigrant, and the impact on the figures is small except for the 2022 cohort. After the update, 10,000 more individuals aged 15 or older were classified as immigrants among the resident population in 2022. Approximately 1,000 of these had Oslo as their municipality of residence.
• On 30 January 2026, in connection with the publication of final figures for 2024, the tables with level 3 of prioritised labour market status were updated for the 2015–2018 cohorts. Quality improvements in the underlying data for coding of self‑employed persons resulted in a shift from the category "Other employed persons" to "Employed only". For 2018, this applied to just under 800 individuals; for 2015, just under 3,200; and for 2016 and 2017, approximately 5,500 individuals.