Statistics Norway

 Division for Structural business statistics

Statistics Norway, 2225 Kongsvinger, Norway.

The background of the labour cost index is the need for more timeliness in the measurement of changes in labour costs. The purpose is therefore to show changes in labour costs through the year.

The index was published for the first time for the third quarter of 2004, with back indices to the first quarter of 1998.

The statistics is based on data from a-meldingen. At the web-page skatteetaten.no there are more information about the a-meldingen.

The Labour Cost Index is defined by economic activities according to https://www.ssb.no/en/klass/klassifikasjoner/6, which is in accordance toNACE Rev. 2.

The activities covered are in Section F of NACE Rev. 2. The statistics covers enterprises in private sector

The labour cost index measures changes in total labour costs per hour. Total labour costs are the sum of direct labour costs and indirect labor costs.

Direct labour costs include wages and salaries, remuneration and other cash payments like paid annual leave, sickness pay, representation allowances. In other words, payment for hours not worked are also included in direct labour costs. The main sources for direct labour costs are wage totals and wage index.

Wages and other remuneration contains basic paid salaries and other cash payments, among others, sitting-allowances paid to committee members, paid annual leave, sickness pay, representation allowances, and benefits from cashing in or selling options in employment relations.

Payment for hours not worked includes, among other things, paid annual leave, sickness pay, pay for various leave of absence and expenses on extra holidays.

Indirect labour costs include salaries in kind, costs for health and safety, social contributions, training costs and taxes on labour. The main sources for indirect labour costs are the labour cost survey for training costs, costs for health and safety, most social contributions and some of the salaries in kind, and the wage totals for some social contributions and most salaries in kind.

Salaries in kind is a common term for benefits besides the usual salaries. It includes, among other things, costs in connection with free cars, car allowances, free telephones, free newspapers, various welfare initiatives and taxable salaries in kind. Taxable salaries in kind are got from The Register of End of the Year Certificate, which includes, among other things, collective insurance contributions, free food and lodging, toll or monthly travel cards paid by the employer, free electricity, free housing, holiday trips paid by the employer and benefits from contributions to kindergartens for employees' children.

Hours worked are the sum of contractual working hours and overtime.

Reporting unit: Enterprise.

Observation unit(s): Local kind of activity unit.

The index covers changes in wages and earnings for employees in section F in accordance with the new version of Norwegian industry classification (SIC2007).

There are about 230 000 number of persons employed in construction.

Inludes activities in Norway. Activities outside of Norway are not included in the data.

The labour cost index was produced for the first time with figures for the third quarter of 2004 and is comparable back to 1998 for all the economic activities covered.

Base year: 2015=100

Index.

Quarter. 

Legal basis: The Statistics Act of June 21, 2019 number 32 , 

replacing Statistics Act of 16 June 1989, No.54.

Data sent to Eurostat

Information about how the statistics are produced is given as About the statistics at the website (http://www.ssb.no/aki_en/).

There are no confidential data on the aggregated level.

The publication schedule is pre-released in Statistics Norway's Advance Release Calendar.

 See http://www.ssb.no/kalender_en

Statistics Norway releases statistics at its website, www.ssb.no. The statistics are released at 08.00 in Norwegian and English. No other governmental or non-governmental bodies have prior access to data before its release. Data are sent to Eurostat simultaneously with the national release via GESMES. The statistics are used in Statistics Norway's national accounts and in more general monitoring of the economy. The wage indices are furthermore used by business and industry to adjust contracts and in wage negotiations. Other major users or applications are employee and employer organisations and the media . The indices are furthermore used in the building cost index, lorry cost index and consumer price index at Statistics Norway.

Quarterly.

The statistics are published electronically at Statistics Norway's website at http://www.ssb.no/en/aki, and in StatBank (http://www.ssb.no/en/statistikkbanken - “Labour market and earnings” – “Labour costs” – “Index of labour costs”). 

The Statistics on Labour Cost Index are released at 08.00 am on the day given in the statistics calendar: http://www.ssb.no/en/kalender. 

The indices are sent to Eurostat at the same time as the LCI is published nationally.

On web at https://www.ssb.no/en/arbeid-og-lonn/statistikker/aki

Statbank: https://www.ssb.no/en/statbank/list/aki

Not available.

Not available.

Metadata is found at “About the statistics” at http://www.ssb.no/en/aki. 

Not available

The labour cost index is a Laspeyres index with fixed weights. The labour cost index is constructed as a sum of sub-indices for cost components constituting total labour costs. Changes in labour costs are estimated and then weighted together to obtain a labour cost index, where weights are based on information from the labour cost survey.

Quality control and editing of the statistics takes place in several stages, with most of the operations automatic both with respect to the actual control and consequent correction. When the reported data are received essential variables are controlled. Quality control of the data continues before and after registration.

The quarterly Labour Cost Index (LCI) is primarily used by the Technical Reporting Committee on Income Settlement, research institutes, employees and employer organizations, Eurostat, the media, business and industry.

The labour cost index is compiled every quarter, and is published no later than 60 days after the end of each quarter.

The feedback from main users indicates satisfaction. The labour cost index is in use by many enterprises, mainly for contract price adjustments

Statistics Norway has delivered the LCI for all relevant NACE sections, except for O, for the years 1996-2020.

The index is an unadjusted index. It is not seasonally adjusted. This means that the index shows changes in labour costs per hour and that variations in the number of working hours or days between the quarters do not affect the index in the present quarter.

The sources the data, A-ordningen, is classified according to the former standard for industrial classification. For some sections the changes in the classification have been insignificant and the variables have been calculated directly according to NACE 2007. 

The statistics is based on data from a-meldingen. At the web-page skatteetaten.no there are more information about the a-meldingen.

Hours paid are not given in the data source. There is some uncertainty in these calculations.

The statistics is based on administrative data from a-meldingen. The observations can be discarded due to missing information and/or incorrect values for the variables.                

The statistics is based on administrative data from a-meldingen. The observations can be discarded due to missing information and/or incorrect values for the variables.     

The index is published no longer than 60 days after the end of the reference quarter.

All releases are published according to the announced dates: http://www.ssb.no/en/kalender 

The statistics are produced according to Concil Regulations. Statistics cover the whole country.

The statistics are comparable back to first quarter 2000.

Other statistics that could be used to measure direct labour costs include the wage index and the wage-cost statistics from the National Accounts. There are some significant differences between the direct LCI and these statistics. The wage index does not include hours and overtime pay and it measures the development of wages per month. The LCI measures cost per hour, and it includes payments for overtime. The statistics from the National Accounts covers aggregate wage costs and annual changes in average yearly salaries.

Comparability over NACE sections

There are coherense between Nace divisions. 

The labour cost statistics make use of data from «A-ordningen». A-ordningen is a collaborative between The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV), Statistics Norway and the Norwegian Tax Administration.

The aim of a-ordningen is to coordinate the authorities' requirements concerning the reporting of information on employees' income and employment etc. in order for the enforcement of a-ordningen to be as smooth as possible.

From 1st January 2015, the way in which employers and others with a reporting obligation declare employment- and income information to the Norwegian authorities will change. The same information will no longer need to be submitted several times to several national agencies.

The new way of reporting mandatory information is useful to the Norwegian society in general, as the monthly a-melding report provides a more correct foundation for NAV benefits, tax returns and social statistics. A-ordningen is one of the first steps on the road to modernisation and reforms.

Hence, there are no estimates on cost and burden for the enterprises concerning the labour cost statistics on its own

The most significant revision of the LCI was made after the publication of the Labour Cost Survey (LCS) for 2012. This survey gives an overview over the costs of having an employee. The LCI is supposed to measure the quarterly growth in the same costs. If the four year growth in the LCI does not match the growth between the former and the current LCS, it has to be revised. By adjusting the growth for each quarter in the LCI by the same factor we can keep the quarterly variations and at the same time have the LCI reflect the development between the Labour Cost Surveys.

In addition to the adjustment caused by the LCS, there have been some revisions in connection with the new standard of industrial classification and some minor corrections caused by delayed updating of our regular source data. Reports on overtime and overtime hours have been of fluctuating quality, and data for part-time workers have also shown variation that often seems unreasonable.

There was no revision in the LCI in 2020.

There are no scheduled revisions, but if the results of the Labour Cost Survey (LCS) for 2020 which measure growth 2016-2020 does not match the growth in the same period of LCI the index will be revised. From experience there is expected to be none or minor revisions.

 The population covers all the establishments in private sector in Statistics Norway's Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises, industry F.

Quarterly.

Data from register

The labour cost index has no data servey of its own.

The indices are checked against historical series and are compared with the published statistics from other data sources.

The labour cost index is carried out within the frame work set by the data sources.

The labour cost index is adjusted when new significant information becomes available

Not available