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The State Administration Database

Data on Employees in the State Tariff Area – The Central Register of State Employees (SST)

This page provides documentation on employee data from SST as used in the State Administration Database.

Background

Sikt has received data on state employees from The Ministry of Government Administration, Reform, and Church Affairs (FAD), with SST as the source. On behalf of the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development (KRD), Sikt has structured and processed these data to provide statistics and overviews of state employees over time.

The purpose has been to track developments in government jobs at both the smallest possible geographic level (municipality) and the smallest institutional level (agency, organizations, workplace).

The data from SST have not been modified or corrected by Sikt, and we are therefore not responsible for any errors or omissions in the dataset.

If you discover any inaccuracies or missing data, we would greatly appreciate your feedback. Please contact us at polsys@sikt.no

Missing Data on Government Employees After 2014

With the introduction of the A-ordningen in 2015, the collection of salary data for all employees was consolidated and regulated under the A-opplysningsloven (Lovdata). As a result, the Central Register of State Employees was discontinued.

Following this transition, the Ministry of Local Government and Modernization (KMD) no longer has the legal basis to forward data on state employees from Statistics Norway (SSB) to Sikt. This meant that Sikt had to remove statistics for 2015 and 2016 from our website and was also unable to publish data from the 2017 survey.

Sikt is working to establish a new agreement with SSB to regain access to government employee’s data.

SST – Register for State Employes

SST was a database of employees in governmental institutions who were paid according to the state wage regulations. Established in 1973 and it was managed by the Employer Policy Department at FAD.

How did SST work?

Government agencies reported salary and personal data to Statistics Norway (SSB), which verified and forwarded the information to FAD. The data was used for negotiations, workforce, planning and budgeting.

What information was registered?

The register was updated annually on October 1st (and since 1998, also on March 1st) and included:

  • Organizational and personal identification numbers
  • Job codes, salary grades, and wage frameworks
  • Workplace, education, and seniority
  • Fixed and variable allowances, overtime and budget items

Who was included?

All state employees under the state wage agreement, including staff at state-run primary and secondary schools, as well as special education competence centers. Employees in state-owned enterprises, government corporations, and foundations were excluded.

Historical data

Sikt holds annual records from 1980 onwards. Older data exists but is not facilitated due to missing information.

For more details and reporting guidelines, visit www.ssb.no

Variables

The material Sikt has received from SST contains the following variables:

  • Census year
  • Census month
  • Departmental area
  • Agency identity (a combination of variables that form the agency's identity)
  • Organization number (ORGNR)
  • Agency name
  • Workplace/service location name
  • Workplace number
  • Number of employees
  • Gender
  • Person's age as of March 1st
  • Age group
  • Code for full-time/part-time employment
  • Part-time percentage
  • Employment type (hourly-paid, monthly-paid, collectively bargained, honorarium)
  • Municipality number
  • Municipality name
  • Statistical basis (e.g., regularly salaried employees under standard regulations)

Number of Employed Persons

Additionally, the dataset includes the number of employed individuals aged 16 – 74 in each municipality. This makes it possible to calculate the proportion of state employees relative to the total number of employed persons at the municipal, county, and national levels. The information on the number of employed persons is based on data from SSB's Statistics Bank.

Data Extraction

Sikt has created multiple webpages with statistics on state employees. Most of these pages provide links to more detailed overviews, both geographically and institutionally. The main pages include:

  • National Level – Statistics on state employees nationwide.
  • County Level – Statistics on state employees by county.
  • Municipal Level – Statistics on state employees by municipality.
  • Department Areas - Statistics on state employees within different departments.
  • Aggregated Department Area and Agencies - Statistics on state employees at the departmental level and aggregated agency level.
  • Agencies – Statistics on state employees within various agencies.

Additionally, graphical overviews and data visualizations have been created where relevant.

Since SST originally compiled this data for annual salary statistics, the format is not always suited for tracking changes in employment over time for agencies and institutions. This is due to changes in reporting procedures. Moreover, many units in the SST system change their ID numbers for various reasons, requiring manual recording to establish continuous time series for all agencies and institutions.

It is important to note that other reports on state employment may give different results than those based on SST data. For example, Difi's fact sheets on state employment are based on StatRes data, which also includes employees at healthcare institutions. This creates a significantly different statistical basis; for instance, SST data for 2009 reports a total of 140,080 state employees, while StatRes data for the same year shows 264,902.

Furthermore, in some cases, there may be apparent errors or gaps in time series for certain units and agencies. This can occur if SST has reused agency codes for different entities over the years, meaning old agency codes might have been assigned to new units. Efforts are underway to correct such errors.

Other discrepancies in time series may result from errors in how external agencies and units have reported their data to SST over the years. Changes in the number of employees over time can also be attributed to shifts in salary categories or the introduction of new categories.

Changes in the Number of Employees Over Time

Fluctuation in the number of government employees over time can be caused by several factors, including:

  • Definition of state employees (e.g. an agency may have been restructured into an independent legal entity such as a company or enterprise).
  • Change in agency codes (a specific agency code may have included different departments in different years).
  • Reuse of agency codes (a specific agency code may have been reassigned to different agencies over the years).
  • Modification in reporting procedures.
  • Errors in data reporting to SST.
  • Employees shifting to different salary category over time.

Older Overview of State Employees

Several sources provide older overviews of state employees. The first annual report was published in 1949 (St.meld.nr.40, 1949), but errors were corrected in 1950 (Innst.S.nr.149 – 1950). Data for 1951 and 1952 were later published as parliamentary reports, with part-time positions included as a separate appendix.

From 1953 to 1961, these overviews were attachments to the national budgets, categorizing employees as permanent, temporary, or agreement-based workers. From 1962, reports were issued every four years, meaning data is only available for 1961, 1965, 1969, and 1973.

In 1973, the Central State Employees Register (SST) was established as a digital database, developed through collaboration between several state institutions. In 1997, parliament removed §10 from the allocation regulations, leading to a new counting system. From then on government employment figures were reported annually on March 1st.

Older Sources

  • Innst.S.nr.149 – 1950
  • St.meld.nr.13 (1950)
  • St.meld.nr.45 (1951)
  • St.meld.nr.52 (1952)
  • St.prp.nr.1 (1954-1961) – various appendices
  • St.meld.nr.30 (1961-62)
  • St.meld.nr.60 (1965-66)
  • St.meld.nr.73 (1969-70)
  • St.meld.nr.112 (1973-74)