Accuracy and reliability

Overall accuracy

RAS is a register-based total count of the people resident in Denmark, and is used to measure the populations attachment to the labour market. Regarding sources of uncertainties it's mainly the following:

• Determination of the primary attachment to the labour market for a person with more than one job at the end of November: In these cases the primary job is determined by the number of hours worked. The job with the most hours is defined as the primary. For self-employed and assisting spouses the information about working hours is always imputed, and in some cases that goes for employees as well. For employees the imputed part has though decreased from 14 pct. in 2008 to barely 4 pct. in 2017. The imputation can in some cases mean that the wrong job is pointed out as the primary.

• Number of self-employed and assisting spouses: The periodisation of jobs for self-employed and assisting spouses is more uncertain than for employees. A series of information is used to validate whether the person actually is active in a job as self-employed/assisting spouse. There will however be a more significant uncertainty about the number of self-employed and assisting spouses than about the number of employees.

• Employed distributed by industry: There are some uncertainties concerning which workplace the specific employee job is situated, because a number of reports from the employers are insufficient. The insufficient reports causes a necessary search for and correction of errors regarding the workplaces, but even though the errors are corrected in the best possible way there will continuously be uncertainties about parts of the information about workplaces - especially on a detailed level. The uncertainties are especially linked to the detailed distributions of employment in the public sector and particularly on the municipality sector. In that area the distributions on industries within "residential care activities" (industry 87) and "social work activities without accommodation" (industry 88) are uncertain on a more detailed level, but also between the two industry. Detailed distributions on "Education" (industry 85) are also affected by uncertainties.

Before 2008 the data sources for RAS had a lower quality than today. Especially the data source for information about employee jobs had more uncertain information regarding the periodisation of jobs. The employer should report whether the employee had been employed at the end of November. This information was exclusively used for statistical purposes, and Statistics Denmark did not have the ability to control whether the reports where correct or not. Furthermore the register did not have information about wage hours. As a replacement a proxy for the number of working hours where calculated on the background of the yearly labour market supply (ATP) and the length of the employment, though the length of the employment was considerably uncertain. The calculated number of working hours was used when doing the classification if a person had more than one job as employee From 2008 the information about working hours are significantly more precise, which has also improved the precision of the classification significantly.

Sampling error

Not relevant for this statistic.

Non-sampling error

No further comments.

Quality management

Statistics Denmark follows the recommendations on organisation and management of quality given in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and the implementation guidelines given in the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF). A Working Group on Quality and a central quality assurance function have been established to continuously carry through control of products and processes.

Quality assurance

Statistics Denmark follows the principles in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and uses the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF) for the implementation of the principles. This involves continuous decentralized and central control of products and processes based on documentation following international standards. The central quality assurance function reports to the Working Group on Quality. Reports include suggestions for improvement that are assessed, decided and subsequently implemented.

Quality assessment

RAS is based on the labour market accounts (AMR). In AMR, a wide range of data sources are integrated, checked for errors, and harmonized in a statistical system. This allows RAS to provide a broader and more coherent picture of the labor market than individual statistics can. At the same time, RAS is a complete enumeration of the population, meaning it does not carry the same uncertainty as statistics based on samples.

The following uncertainties are associated with the statistics:

Determination of the primary connection to the labor market when a person has multiple jobs at the end of November: In such cases, the primary job is selected as the job where the person normally works the most hours. This information is imputed for self-employed persons and assisting spouses, and in some cases also for employees. For employees, the proportion has fallen from 14 pct. in 2008 to around 6 pct. in 2024. Imputation can, in some cases, result in the wrong job being designated as the primary job.

Number of employed self-employed persons and assisting spouses: For self-employed persons and assisting spouses, the periodisation of jobs throughout the year is more uncertain than for employees. Various information is used in the production to assess whether the person is actually active in a job as self-employed or assisting spouse. There is, however, greater uncertainty associated with counts of self-employed persons and assisting spouses than with counts of employees.

Employment by industry: There is some uncertainty regarding the workplace of individual employee jobs, as some employer reports are incomplete. Incomplete reports require error checking and correction of workplaces. Even when errors are corrected as thoroughly as possible, some uncertainty remains regarding parts of the workplace information, particularly at a detailed level. These uncertainties are especially relevant for detailed distributions of employment by industries in the public sector, particularly at the municipal level. Here, distributions by industries within institutional care (industry group 87) and social services without institutional care (industry group 88) are uncertain at a more detailed level, as well as between these two groups. Detailed distributions within education (85) are also associated with some uncertainty.

Subdivision of employees by skill level (i.e., managers, employees at upper level, employees at medium level, employees at basic level, other employees, and employees not specified) is based on information about work functions reported to Statistics Denmark’s wage statistics. Smaller private sector enterprises (fewer than 10 full-time employees) are not required to report this information, and the classification of employees by skill level is instead based on imputation where possible. In such cases, the quality of the information on skill level is therefore significantly lower.

Data revision - policy

Statistics Denmark revises published figures in accordance with the Revision Policy for Statistics Denmark. The common procedures and principles of the Revision Policy are for some statistics supplemented by a specific revision practice.

Data revision practice

When RAS is published, the data are considered final and are normally not revised. However, when the Labour Market Accounts (AMR_UN) became the data basis for RAS in 2008, revisions of previously published figures were made on two occasions:

Publication of figures for the end of November 2013: The figures for 2008–2012 were revised. Overall, it is assessed that there was a downward level shift in employment of 35,000–50,000 persons between November 2007 and November 2008 as a result of the transition to AMR_UN as the data source for employee employment.

Publication of figures for the end of November 2014: The figures for 2008–2013 were revised, primarily because more up-to-date population information was used than in previous publications. This revision did not significantly affect overall employment. The revision resulted in a reduction of the number of persons in the group "other persons outside the labor force" by 12,000–14,000 (approximately 24,000 in 2013).

The reduction in the group "others outside the labour force" is partly due to the fact that more up-to-date population data means that more emigrations are being registered, reducing the population and the number of people in the group by 5,000-8,000. In addition, au pairs were now counted as employed in connection with the revision, while foreign students were counted as being in education. Finally, the group of early retirement pensioners increased by 3,000-4,000 due to changes in data processing.

In addition to these changes, minor corrections were also made to industry, workplace, and sector codes for employees.