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FI-00022 Statistics Finland

Finland

STS indicator Number of employees and self-employed persons

The Finnish data for the STS indicator are obtained from the Finnish Labour Force Survey (LFS, Työvoimatutkimus). The Finnish LFS is a large continuous sample survey providing results on labour participation of people aged between 15 and 89. The monthly and quarterly Labour Force Survey data concern the 15 to 74 age group. The targets of the Finnish LFS are individual persons, not enterprises. For this reason, employees and self-employed persons are covered regardless of employer sector. The quarterly population sample comprises of 37,500 persons.

The definitions used for employees and self-employed persons are similar to the STS definition of Eurostat. Further information: https://stat.fi/en/statistics/documentation/tyti.

The Standard Industrial Classification NACE rev. 2.0 is used.

 All economic activities and all size classes of enterprises are covered in the Finnish LFS.

STS indicator Number of employees and self-employed persons

The concepts and definitions used in the Finnish LFS follow the recommendations of the ILO and the regulations of Eurostat. In the basic classification of the labour market situation, the population is divided into the employed, the unemployed and the economically inactive.

The concept of persons employed is equivalent to the STS definition of employees and self-employed persons.

A person is employed if he/she has been in employment at least one hour for pay or entrepreneurial income during the survey week. Persons temporarily absent from work during the survey week are also classified as employed if the reason for absence is maternity or paternity leave, earnings-related parental leave, own illness, holiday or working hour arrangements or if the absence lasts for under three months.

The numbers of persons employed comprise employees, self-employed (also in cases where they are the only labour force of their company), and persons working without actual pay in an enterprise or on a farm owned by a family member.

The industrial activity is defined for the main jobs of employed persons according to the employer's establishment or the industry of one's own enterprise. The industrial activity of the LKAU is obtained mainly from the Business Register at Statistics Finland.

Accounting conventions: The sample is distributed evenly over all weeks of the year.

The statistical unit, the observation unit as well as the reporting unit, is a person aged between 15 and 89. Quarterly data concern the 15 to 74 age group.

The employed person is linked to the LKAU at Statistics Finland. 

The target population of the Labour Force Survey consists of persons aged between 15 and 89 who are permanent residents of Finland. Quarterly data concern the 15 to 74 age group. The population also comprises persons residing temporarily abroad as well as foreign nationals registered in the Finnish Population Information System.

The sample of the Labour Force Survey is drawn twice a year as a stratified random sample from Statistics Finland’s population database, which is based on the Central Population Register.

The whole country is covered, including the Autonomous Territory of the Åland Islands.

Indicator Number of employees and self-employed persons includes also a small number (fewer than 0.5 per cent of all persons employed) of persons who work outside the national territory even though they may reside in Finland (see 3.6 for target population).

Correspondingly, persons working but not living in Finland are not covered.

The Finnish Labour Force Survey (LFS) started in 1959. Finnish LFS data have been delivered to Eurostat since 1995. The time series data for STS indicators start from the year 1989. The current STS time series data (NACE rev.2) start from the year 2000, except for:

- the NACE divisions C32 and C33 from 2005 (exemption due to unavailability of backcast)

- the NACE division B09 from 2009 (due to economic size of the activity inside the country)

- the NACE section L from 2009

- the NACE division N77 and NACE groups N811 and N813 are included in their aggregates as of 2009.

The data content, data collection and estimation method of the Labour Force Survey were renewed at the beginning of 2021. Time series were corrected retrospectively in accordance with the new estimation method. The corrected data are available starting from 2009 and they are not comparable with data from earlier years.

Starting from the data transmission of 2021Q1, the STS time series have been transmitted to Eurostat as indices.

The current base year is 2021.

The reference year for the indices is 2021=100.

Indices with the earlier reference year (2015=100) are available until the time period 2023Q4.

These indices are not published nationally.

The data are provided as indices.

The reference period for the STS indicator is a quarter. In the data collection, the reference period is the survey week. Data are collected from all weeks of the year. The results are calculated for months, quarters and years.

The Statistics Act (280/2004) is the general act for the National Statistical Service (NSS). It contains the principles for the data collection, processing, and dissemination of official statistics. The Statistics Finland Act (48/1992) states that Statistics Finland (SF) shall provide for the general development of official statistics in collaboration with other central government authorities. The aim of the NSS is to produce official statistics, Official Statistics of Finland (OSF). European law (especially the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on European statistics (EC) No 223/2009) applies to a large portion of OSF. Further information: https://stat.fi/meta/lait/index_en.html

The compilation of the Finnish LFS is regulated by Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council. A list of the Regulations specifically concerning the European Union Labour Force Survey (LFS) is available on the Eurostat website https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/lfs/legislation.

For the reporting unit, the participation in the Finnish LFS is voluntary.

The compilation of STS employment statistics is regulated by Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council. A list of the Regulations specifically concerning the Short-term business statistics is available on the Eurostat website https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/short-term-business-statistics/legislation.

According to the Statistics Act, data obtained by four statistical authorities may be released to other parties either if permitted by legal provisions explicitly concerning the NSS, or upon express consent of the subject of the data. 

The STS data obtained from the Finnish LFS are transmitted to Eurostat only.

The Statistics Act obliges statistics-producing authorities to inform respondents about the intended use of the data, the procedures to be used in producing the statistics, the principles governing whether the provision of data is obligatory or voluntary, the rights of the respondents, the arrangements for protecting the data, and the duration the data will be stored.

The Statistics Act allows a statistical authority to grant access to confidential data for use in scientific research or statistical surveys if statistical units cannot be identified directly from them. The right to use data may be given in compliance with a well-defined process including a written application.

SF has implemented procedures to prevent disclosure of any individual data provider. It has published guidelines on how to apply the Statistics Act and the Data Protection Act, as well as guidelines on the protection of tabulated data on enterprises and individual persons. A section on data protection is included in the SF publication Quality Guidelines for Official Statistics.

When needed, aggregation of classes is used in the Finnish LFS.

The principles of data protection and the description on the legislation related to confidentiality are available on the website of Statistics Finland at: https://stat.fi/meta/tietosuoja/index_en.html.

SF has implemented procedures to prevent disclosure of any individual data provider. It has published guidelines on how to apply the Statistics Act and the Data Protection Act, as well as guidelines on the protection of tabulated data on enterprises and individual persons. A section on data protection is included in the SF publication Quality Guidelines for Official Statistics.

When needed, aggregation of classes is used in the Finnish LFS.

A release schedule for the coming year, specifying precise dates of release, is published in the Release Calendar in December by Statistics Finland. The calendar is available on the website of Statistics Finland.

The STS indicators obtained from the Finnish LFS are not published nationally.

https://stat.fi/en/statistics/tyti#calendar

The results are published simultaneously to all interest parties on the Internet https://stat.fi/en/statistics/tyti.

Key results of the Labour Force Survey are published simultaneously with the results of the Employment Service Statistics. Therefore the persons responsible for production of the Employment Service Statistics in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment have been provided with an embargoed copy of the LFS key results few days in advance for information. Otherwise there is no internal governmental access to data before their release. No ministerial commentary is attached to released data.

Information on and links to the legislation governing SF are available on its website. There is a special service on the Internet for those obliged to give information to SF, The data collections section. All statistics compiled by SF have a homepage of their own, with a permanent Internet address (stat.fi/en/statistics/name of statistics). In addition to statistical data, these homepages contain a large set of metadata concerning the statistics in question.

The main results from the Finnish LFS are published monthly and quarterly. The annual results are published in two to three publications.

The STS time series data obtained from the Finnish LFS are not published nationally. They are transmitted quarterly to Eurostat.

There is a “news release” section in the beginning of monthly, quarterly and annual publications on the Internet https://www.stat.fi/en/statistics/tyti#pastPublications.

As of the year 2010, the monthly and quarterly publications Labour Force Survey, Official Statistics of Finland, series Labour Market are published only in electronic format on the Internet https://www.stat.fi/en/statistics/tyti. The quarterly results are published simultaneously with the appropriate monthly releases.

The STS time series data delivered to Eurostat are not published nationally. In the national releases, the quarterly and annual data on the number of persons employed and the number of hours worked are published in wider than two-digit categories of  NACE rev. 2: https://pxweb2.stat.fi/PXWeb/pxweb/en/StatFin/StatFin__tyti/statfin_tyti_pxt_137l.px. (See Accuracy 13.2.)

There are time series data on employment in Statistics Finland’s PX-Web database on the Internet https://pxweb2.stat.fi/PXWeb/pxweb/en/StatFin/StatFin__tyti/?tablelist=true.

Statistics Finland's researcher services offer unit-level data, i.e. micro data, for scientific studies and statistical surveys. The conditions and rules with respect to data access can be found on the home page https://stat.fi/tup/mikroaineistot/index_en.html.

On request, tailored tables and data files are provided for a fee.

Monthly the main Finnish LFS results and quarterly the micro data as well as the STS employment and hours worked data are transmitted to Eurostat to be used in European aggregates and to be released as national data.

Documentation on the methodology and sources used in preparing the Finnish LFS is available in the Documentation section of the LFS on the Internet https://www.stat.fi/en/statistics/documentation/tyti.

Documentation of the LFS methodology is also available on the Eurostat website https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=EU_labour_force_survey.

The Finnish LFS quality documentation is available on the Internet (https://www.stat.fi/en/statistics/documentation/tyti) and it is attached to all publications. Examples of the accuracy of key estimates of the Finnish LFS are available in chapter Accuracy, reliability and timeliness of the documentation.

Quarterly and yearly, the quality reports for the Finnish LFS are prepared and transmitted to Eurostat.

A thorough national statistical auditing and peer review on the Finnish LFS was made in 2011.

All statistical authorities of Finland have signed a quality assurance in which they commit to the principles that steer statistics production. The quality assurance concerns such as the contents of statistical data, production processes and service to data users: https://www.stat.fi/ajk/tiedotteet/2013/uutinen_002_2013-01-31_en.html.

The principles of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM principles) are employed by Statistics Finland as its overall framework for quality management. The quality management framework of the field of statistics is the European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP). The frameworks complement each other. The quality criteria of Official Statistics of Finland are also compatible with the European Statistics Code of Practice. Further information on quality management at Statistics Finland

The main lines of quality management at Statistics Finland are defined in the handbook Quality Guidelines for Official Statistics.

The top management of SF has made several self-assessments in line with the EFQM model. There have also been external audits by e.g. the EU and IMF experts. Processes are in place to monitor the quality of the statistical process and the processes of individual statistics. Quality considerations are an integral part of the planning and evaluation of the statistical programme. The process owner of statistical production and it’s supporting group monitor the quality and steer the standardisation of work processes.

Statistics Finland has an internal quality audit system. The main objectives are to evaluate the ways of working, methods and techniques. An audit is carried out by an audit team of experts who are external in the sense that they do not have any direct connection with the production process in question. Usually about 8 audits have been carried out yearly.

The Finnish LFS measures up to all LFS quality standards set by Eurostat.

The quality strengths concerning STS indicator in question are: The Finnish LFS definition of employees and self-employed persons comply with the STS definition. The population sample’s coverage is good (age, sex, geographical area). The results cover all industrial activities and all weeks of the year. The only noteworthy quality deficiency for the STS indicator concerns the accuracy of the estimates for the very smallest 2-digit NACE groups (see 13.2 Sampling error).

Key users of the LFS results are ministries, authorities responsible for regional planning, employers’ and employees’ organisations, universities and research institutes, international organisations and the European Union.

The Finnish LFS comply with the EU LFS regulations.

Co-operation between SF and important users with regard to the relevance of statistics and the users’ needs consists of an extensive feedback system and co-operative working groups with the main users. There are regular meetings of SF directors and experts with the users, even at the senior management level. Users are usually also invited to participate in discussions concerning the establishment of new statistics or revisions of existing ones.

The national users of the Finnish LFS are contacted, for example, via the Finnish labour market statistics expert group.

There are specific feedback systems for receiving the users’ opinions at SF. These systems consist of an anonymous feedback channel on the web, media monitoring, surveys among different user groups for the evaluation of SF’s performance, user surveys (every other year or every third year, results of the latest user survey published in 2019), and a system for collecting and disseminating information that is strategically important for SF.

The STS indicator Number of employees and self-employed persons obtained from the Finnish LFS comply with the EU regulation.

The STS indicator time series are available for all activities (NACE 2-digit groups) that exist in Finland. The quarterly estimates for the very smallest 2-digit groups are available for the EU aggregates (see 13.2).

For the time periods covered, see 3.8.

Accuracy and reliability of the figures of the Labour Force Survey, as figures of all sample surveys, are affected by random variation due to sampling, non-response and measurement errors. Low accuracy due to sampling error is a problem for the very smallest 2-digit NACE groups (see 13.2).

For the STS indicators, a low accuracy of the estimates concerns the very smallest NACE 2-digit groups. Their coefficients of variation are high because of the random variation due to sampling. Therefore, the estimates of fewer than 4,000 persons are flagged confidential for publication in the STS data (they are based on a low number of individual respondents).  

Examples of the accuracy of the key estimates are available on the Labour Force Survey’s home page on the Internet (https://stat.fi/en/statistics/documentation/tyti#Accuracy,%20reliability%20and%20timeliness).

In 2023, the non-response rate was 48 per cent (Q1 51%, Q2 51%, Q3 48% and Q4 43%) for persons aged 15 to 74. The data are collected mainly by telephone interviews and from 2021 onwards also with a web questionnaire. There is also a possibility of face-to-face interview when necessary. Persons who have been selected as respondents are always informed in advance by post.

Measurement errors arise from, among other things, differences in interpreting or understanding of the questions, respondents’ inability to recall or unwillingness to give certain information, or erroneous recording of answers. Development and testing of the questions in advance, training and supporting the interviewers and careful planning, codification and testing of questionnaires are the measures used to contain measurement errors.

The main monthly, quarterly and annual results are published about three weeks after the end of the reference month, quarter or year. The data are final when first released.

Interviewers' fieldwork takes place within approximately two weeks after the reference week. Responding with web questionnaire is possible until the end of fieldwork for the reference month.

All quarterly STS data were delivered on time.

The results of the Finnish LFS are geographically comparable between regions.

The STS data for the total number of persons employed are available as of the year 2000. As of the year 2008, the industrial classification of NACE Rev. 2 is used in the Finnish LFS. The STS data according to the industrial classification NACE Rev. 2 are also available as backcast as of the year 2000 (for exceptions, see 3.8). However, the accuracy of the classification for the period 2000-2004 is not of as good quality as for the period 2005­­­-2007 because of different methods used in backcasting.

The data content, data collection and estimation method of the Labour Force Survey were renewed at the beginning of 2021. Time series were corrected retrospectively in accordance with the new estimation method. The corrected data are available starting from 2009 and they are not comparable with data from earlier years.

Comparisons are made regularly to the National Account figures and the registered unemployment figures of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, and occasionally to the annual register data on employment and the labour cost statistics (see chapter Coherence - cross domain in documentation https://stat.fi/en/statistics/documentation/tyti).

The aggregates are consistent with their main sub-aggregates.

For the Finnish LFS respondents, there is no additional burden caused by the STS indicators.

The additional burden and costs for SF arise from 1) processing of the STS indicators from the Finnish LFS data and from the time to time required development work of the processes, as well as from 2) the participation in Eurostat’s STS work, such as answering several kinds of inquiries. 

A rough estimate for the additional burden caused by the STS indicators is about 10 to 20 staff-days per year, depending on the amount of work aside from the most ordinary tasks.

Statistics Finland has prepared detailed guidelines for practices when changes are made to published statistical data (https://www.stat.fi/org/principles/publication-principles-for-statistics/practices-when-changes-are-made-to-statistical-data).

There is no revision calendar for the LFS. There are no routine revisions of LFS data, except for the seasonally adjusted or calendar adjusted data. Seasonal or calendar adjustments are not performed for the STS indicator Number of employees and self-employed persons. No data conciliation with other statistics is carried out.

In principle, same policies are applied to nationally released data and to the data transmitted to Eurostat. However, the STS indicators obtained from the Finnish LFS are not released nationally.

The Finnish LFS data are final when first released. If errors occur, they are corrected and the users are informed about them as quickly as possible.

Advance notice is given to the public on the Internet when major changes are introduced in methodology and statistical techniques.

The Finnish monthly Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a sample survey based on population sample. So the statistical unit and the target of the survey is an individual person, not an enterprise.

The scope of the Finnish LFS consists of the resident population aged between 15 and 89. The population also comprises persons residing temporarily (for under one year) abroad as well as foreign nationals registered in the Finnish Population Information System whose stay in Finland will last for at least one year. Quarterly data concern the 15 to 74 age group.

The sample is drawn twice a year as a stratified random sample from Statistics Finland’s population database, which is based on the Central Population Register. The sample of each quarter consists of approximately 37,500 persons. As for each month, the sample consists of approximately 12,500 persons, which is, on average, every 370th person in the population. The register data in the sample are updated every month.

The survey is a panel survey in which one person is interviewed five times. The sample changes gradually so that different persons answer the questions during three consecutive months. In consecutive quarters three-fifths of the respondents are the same. In consecutive years the overlap is two-fifths.

The data collection is continuous. The sample is distributed evenly over all weeks of the year, so the data are collected from all weeks of the year.

Statistics Finland’s interviewers collect the data with computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI). Since 2021 the respondents have had the possibility to respond also with a web questionnaire. Interviews are carried out in Finnish, Swedish and English, and the web questionnaire is also available in the same languages. The industrial activity of the LKAU is obtained mainly from the Business Register at Statistics Finland.

Format and file structure checks: In the Finnish LFS, the computer-assisted interview software Blaise includes checks for the valid value range of the response data. In the production system of the monthly LFS data, the checks and corrections are managed by the LFS expert using an easy to handle .NET-application. In the transmission of the response data from the interviewers’ database to the LFS SQL-database, the controls concern the value ranges, the number of records per week, and the preliminary distributions of certain control variables compared to the month before. Data on the reasons for non-response in the monthly data are also monitored.  

Intra-data checks: The application includes consistency checks between variables in the response data and in the created output data, such as dates, sum of workdays and sick days per week, and status in employment versus employer sector.   

Inter-data checks: The last validation test for the monthly data comprises comparison of the estimates in the publication tables, based on several background variables, with the estimates from one year ago.

The revision checks are not applicable in the Labour Force Survey.

Consistency checks between two domains available in the same institution: The results of the Labour Force Survey versus those of the register-based Employment Statistics, the National Accounts and the Business Register of Statistics Finland are studied periodically.  

Checks on STS data sent to Eurostat: The structure and the content of the STS data package are controlled manually by making comparisons to the source data before and after the data are converted into the SDMX file.

The results from the sample are weighted to correspond to the entire population aged between 15 and 89. The weighting progresses through basic weighting to reweighting. The basic weighting is the starting point for reweighting and it takes into account the sampling design of the survey and the stratification used in it, as well as the number of respondents by stratum. The reweighting method uses calibration of weights, where the basic weights are improved by utilising the latest available population data and additional information available from other register sources. Population data are gender, age, region and language. Other additional information is obtained from the Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, Statistics Finland's Register of Completed Education and Degrees, and the Tax Administration's Incomes Register. Calibration weights are formed with CALMAR2 software operating in SAS environment developed in France.

Starting from 2021, a quarterly weight is used in the calculation of quarterly estimates, which is calculated by scaling the monthly weight of each month of the quarter in question to the average population of the quarter and by proportioning it to the number of survey weeks in the month. Annual estimates are averages of quarterly estimates.

From estimated quarterly number of employed persons, quarterly STS indices are calculated as percentages of average number of employed persons in the base year (2021=100) for each time series. STS data are then converted into the SDMX file.

No seasonal or calendar adjustment procedures are applied for the STS indicator Number of employees and self-employed persons.

The Finnish Labour Force Survey was renewed from the beginning of 2021. Changes include the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council, as well as changes in the data collection mode and estimation methods. For more detailed information, see https://stat.fi/en/statistics/documentation/tyti.