Accuracy and reliability

Overall accuracy

The primary data source for information on jobs and wages for employees through labor market accounts is the e-income register. The e-income register is based on information that employers report to the tax authorities. The register contains data on taxable items such as wages, and therefore the quality of the information is considered to be high. The reports cover the entire relevant population, meaning they are not subject to the same uncertainty as statistics based on samples.

Sampling error

Sampling uncertainty is not relevant because the statistic is based on a census.

Non-sampling error

Overall, the following sources of uncertainty have been identified:

Full-time employment is calculated based on employers’ reports of working hours. In some cases, these reports are missing or considered erroneous. In such cases, working hours are imputed, which naturally introduces greater uncertainty. In 2024, approximately 6% of working hours were imputed.

The assignment of jobs to the correct workplace is, in some cases, uncertain. This may affect the geographic as well as the industry- and sector-level distribution of the data.

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

The underlying data on which the statistics are based can be considered to be of high quality. At the same time, the statistics are based on a full count, which means that they do not carry the same uncertainty as statistics based on samples.

Since 2008, monthly data from Statistics Denmark’s e-Income Register have been used as the basis for employee jobs. This has significantly improved the quality of information regarding whether an employee is employed at the end of November. However, there are still some sources of uncertainty associated with the statistics:

Reporting of working hours There may be uncertainty as to whether the reported hours take into account additions or deductions from the normal number of hours (e.g., paid overtime or unpaid absence), and whether the hours are correctly allocated to the reporting period. A fixed full-time norm of 37 hours per week (160.33 hours per month) is used for all employees, corresponding to the full-time norm for most salaried employees. Some groups, however, may have a different full-time norm. For example, hourly-paid workers or newly hired salaried employees may have a full-time norm below 160.33 hours per month, as they typically do not receive payment for, e.g., holidays. This affects the level and interpretation of the number of full-time employees. However, it is not possible, based on the e-Income Register, to separate the population into different groups of employees with different full-time norms. One advantage of using a fixed full-time norm for all employees is that it makes it simple to convert the number of full-time employees into paid hours, providing an indicator of trends in employment volume for employees. This allows users to create alternative breakdowns (with varying full-time norms) according to their needs and the groups they wish to compare.

Imputation of working hours In cases where reported working hours are missing, considered invalid, or deemed unlikely, the working hours are imputed. In 2024, this affected approximately 6 pct. of jobs (including jobs at both genuinely active and inactive companies). The imputed working hours may vary over time and by industry and sector.

Reporting of workplace All employers are required to report the workplace for each job. However, some employers submit incomplete reports. For companies with multiple workplaces, information on which workplace a specific job should be assigned to is sometimes missing. If it is not possible to obtain this information through the usual error correction process, the job is automatically assigned to the most likely workplace. This is done, for example, by weighing information on the size of workplaces and their distance from the employee’s municipality of residence. This procedure ensures that the statistics can be distributed across geographic areas and detailed industry categories.

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

Normally, published figures are not revised. However, if errors are identified in the published figures, they will be corrected.