Employees are residents aged 16-74 receiving wages through the pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) tax system.

A person is classified as an employee if he or she receives a wage payment which is no lower than a day wage for an unskilled worker, regardless of whether the wage is paid by a Faroese or an overseas company.

The statistics only cover wages for work done. Income from self-employment (known as ‘B-income’ in the Faroe Islands), remunerations, allowances from the unemployment insurance scheme and other payments such as grants and early retirement benefits are not included.

Employees are paid by employers grouped into industrial sectors. Statistics Faroe Islands uses the international NACE sector classification system with certain adaptations to accommodate specific Faroese production practices. Employers are classified into 624 specific industrial sectors, which are further grouped into the following four main industrial sectors:

Fishery and other natural resources sector includes: agriculture, fishing, aquaculture, extraction of raw materials, fish processing and similar activities not elsewhere indicated.

Construction and other manufacturing sector includes: shipyards/machine shops, other manufacturing, construction, and energy and water supply.

Private services sector includes: trade and repair, hotels and restaurants, sea transport, other transport, postal and communications services, finance and insurance, business services. household services, organisations, culture, etc.

Governmental and other services include: public administration and services, central administration, municipalities, government institutions and the Ministries of Education and Health.

Definitions:

• Annual statistics is based on the monthly statement in November.
• Seasonally adjusted figures are adjusted for seasonal patterns such as recurring seasonal activity patterns. Seasonal adjustment may not be a reliable method in periods with exceptional seasonal fluctuations where monthly figures deviate too much from the regular calendar.
• Trend describes the employee trend by adjusting for seasonal effects and error components in the figures.
• EA refers to the euro area with a fixed area composition of the current 19 countries.
• EU (from June 2020) refers to EU27_2020, which is the European Union with a fixed area composition of the current 27 countries.

See also Labour force, Unemployment and Wage expenditures.