Accuracy and reliability

Overall accuracy

KAS is a register-based averaging of the primary attachment to the labour market for people resident in Denmark. The accuracy with the statistic is high. 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 is though decreased from 14 pct. in 2008 to barely 4 pct. in 2013. 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 period 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 with 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 on industries in the public sector, and particularly on the municipal area. 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 combined with uncertainties.

Sampling error

Not relevant.

Non-sampling error

Inadequate or conflicting reports are corrected. Among others the information about working hours is imputed for persons with no information reported.

A selection of self-employed and assisting spouses is done on basis of a series of information about the person and the job.

If a person has more than one job at the time of reference, the primary job is determined as the job with the highest assumed number of working hours.

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

KAS is an average calculation of the employed people resident in Denmark and the data foundation is the Labour Market Account (LMA). In LMA various data sources are integrated, corrected and harmonized in one joined system. With RAS there are thus improved possibilities for studying the labour market compared to the solitary statistics. Since RAS is a total count of the population there is not the same uncertainties as with statistics based on surveys. There are however other uncertainties connected to the statistic:

• 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 is though decreased from 14 pct. in 2008 to barely 4 pct. in 2013. 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 period 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 with 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 on industries in the public sector, and particularly on the municipal area. 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 combined with uncertainties.

The division of employees into level of skills (managers, employees at upper levels, employees at medium levels, employees at basic levels, other employees and employees not further specified) is done by means of information about work function, which is reported to the wage statistic or otherwise imputed. That happens when the employees work in smaller firms in the private sector (less than 10 full-time employed), which are not obliged to rapport to Statistic Denmark’s wage statistic. In these cases the quality of information about the skill level is of lower quality.

The selection of self-employed and assisting spouses is done by means of defined demands and on the background of a series of information about the person and the job.

KAS is similar to RAS which has been published since 1981, and since 2015 has LMA as data foundation. KAS differs from RAS on the calculation method. RAS is a status on the populations primary attachment to the labour market taken on the last working day of November. KAS on the other hand is an average calculation on the populations primary attachment to the labour market divided in quarters and calculated based on information about employment on every day. KAS can thus contribute to clarifying the populations labour market attachment over all four quarters instead of a single day in the year.

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 data is considered final. However data can be revised as a result of changes in methods or new information available.