Workplace

The number of persons working in a certain area can be used to describe the number of jobs in that area. Each employed person is thus thought to represent one job. This means that even part-time work is included in the workplace statistics. If, for example, the work of someone on maternity leave is done by a substitute, two workplaces may be registered. Employment may also be of temporary or short-term in nature.

In the register-based censuses and in the employment statistics no distinction has been made between work done at fixed workplaces and work of mobile nature. Instead, all persons are allocated to some establishment regardless of the nature of the work. If exact data on the location of a workplace are lacking, persons are placed in the municipality where they live. For the majority of self-employed the location of their workplace is the same as the municipality where they live.

Workplace numbers can be distorted by flaws in data sources. For example, where detailed information on the workplace of a person employed in a company with several establishments is missing, the person's workplace is fixed to that person's place of residence, or persons may accumulate in a company's main establishment.