Employees
30. Aug 2024
30,323 employees in July – up 1% year-on-year
Revised statistics on employees
Employee statistics have been updated and published anew. The age range now includes all ages 13 and up, previously limited to 16-74. The new statistics are also more detailed. The analysis of the statistics includes a revised classification of industries, sectoral distribution, employees’ residency status, and jobs. The revision has brought about certain changes, which are described in the box at the bottom of the article.
July 2024 saw a year-on-year increase of 300 employees, an increase of about 1%.
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Employees by sex
In July, there were about 15,600 male and 14,800 female employees – 51.3% men and 48.7% women. This represents a year-on-year increase of 0.5% for men and 1.5% for women.
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Employees by industry
As part of the revised employee statistics, the industry classification now follows Eurostat's NACE Rev 2.0 industry classification. The new industry classification is more detailed and internationally comparable. The table below compares employee figures in July 2024 and July 2023. The table shows the first level of the new industry classification. Further levels can be seen in the statbank.
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Employees by sector
Employees can now also be classified according to whether their employer is under public or private control. In July 2024, 56.3% of employees worked in the private sector and 43.7% in the public sector. Public-sector employers cover institutions and public companies.
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About 9,150 women, equivalent to about 60% of all female employees, worked in public-sector jobs in July. Conversely, some 70% of male employees worked in private-sector jobs.
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Residency status and citizenship
To qualify as a long-term resident, one must have lived half of one's life or 7 out of 10 consecutive years in the Faroe Islands once in one's life. The graph below, outlining the trend in the number of employees by residency status (long-term and short-term), shows growth in both groups. Compared to July 2023, the increase is 1% for long-term residents and 1.1% for short-term residents.
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More detailed citizenship data is now available for non-European employees. The graph below shows the percentage of employees without long-term residence status, organised by nationality and grouped by continents. Of those with less than 7 out of 10 years of consecutive residence, the share of employees with Asian citizenships has seen a significant increase in recent years.
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Number of jobs and employers
In addition to the number of employees, it is now also possible to see the number of jobs and employers. In July, about 36,000 jobs were distributed among just over 2,000 employers in the Faroes. Of these, 30,323 were main jobs – equal to the total number of employees – while 5,760 were minor jobs. Compared to July 2023, there are now 2% more employers and 4% more minor jobs. The measures are explained in the box below the article.
In July, employees held an average of just below 1.2 jobs each.
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About the employee statistics
Statistics Faroe Islands’ employee statistics include persons aged 13 or over who receive wages taxed at source (known as A-income in the Faroes) in the registered month, corresponding to at least 4 hours per month through the pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) tax system.
Statistics on employees and jobs follow the guidelines in the International Labor Organization (ILO) manuals on employees and jobs under the United Nations. The ILO defines an employee as a person of working age who has been employed by an employer for at least a short period and has produced goods or provided services for a wage. This includes a) employed persons who have worked at least 1 hour during the period (typically set to 1 week) and b) employed persons who are temporarily out of work (due to e.g. sick leave, parental leave or time off in lieu).
The source of employee statistics is monthly A-income through the PAYE tax system. In accordance with the international standard of at least 1 hour per week, the monthly wage threshold is calculated as 4 hours of wages per employee, since there are about four weeks in a month. The hourly wage is set as minimum wage + holiday pay as per the agreement between the Faroese Labour Union and the Faroese Employers' Union. This means that if the monthly wage is below the limit, the person is not considered an employee that month. According to the Faroese Work and Safety Inspectorate, 13 is set as the lower age limit in the statistics as children younger than 13 cannot be employed.
Updates to employee statistics
The employee statistics system was revised in the first half of 2024 and is now more detailed than before. Key updates include:
- Main activity according to NACE Rev. 2 (2008). The employee statistics are restructured to comply with the internationally comparable classification NACE rev. 2. (2008). Levels 1 and 2 of the classification are directly comparable. In level 3, some selected sub-industries are further divided to accommodate special Faroese conditions. The main industry is the industry in which the employer has the most activity.
- Institutional sector. Employee figures can now be classified according to whether the employer is under public or private ownership. The sector classification is based on the international classification in Eurostat’s ‘European system of accounts’. The sectoral division in the statbank is a simpler configuration of this classification.
- Employees’ citizenships are further broken down into regions and continents.
- Residency status, showing wage trends of individuals with or without long-term residency status.
- The revised statistics include various new elements:
- Employees (main job), which is the number of employed persons associated with the job for which they receive the highest salary. A person is only counted once.
- Main and minor jobs, which counts the total number of jobs together. A person can be counted multiple times if the person has more than one employer.
- Minor jobs, which only counts jobs that employees have in addition to the main job. One person can be counted multiple times if the person has more than one employer.
- Jobs across industries, where one job per person can only be counted once in each economic activity/institutional sector. However, if the person has jobs with employers in different industries/sectors, the jobs are counted for each economic activity/institutional sector.
- Employers, which is the number of employers. They are only counted once, in the economic activity/institutional sector where their main activity is.
Revised statistics
Employee statistics have been updated and revised. This has brought about a slight increase in the total number of employees. On average, the number of employees is now 500-1,500 higher each month, for various reasons. Primarily because the new statistics cover a wider age range. The previous figures covered ages 16-74, but now anyone aged 13 or over is included. Other changes include a lower wage threshold value, the addition of more parental leave registrations and the fact that certain payments through the PAYE tax system, previously not considered wages, are now correctly recorded as wages. Most of these payments were previously registered as public benefits, and the new registration affects the employee statistics. With these changes, the latest figures cannot be compared to previous data. The old tables are, however, still accessible in the statbank but will no longer be updated. These tables are labelled 'Discontinued' in the statbank.
