It is shown that two vectors with coordinates in the finite $q$-element field of characteristic $p$ belong to the same orbit under the natural action of the symmetric group if each of the elementary symmetric polynomials of degree $p^k,2p^k,\dots,(q-1)p^k$, $k=0,1,2,\dots$ has the same value on them. This separating set of polynomial invariants for the natural permutation representation of the symmetric group is not far from being minimal when $q=p$ and the dimension is large compared to $p$. A relatively small separating set of multisymmetric polynomials over the field of $q$ elements is derived.