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Weekly Bulletin issue no. 50, 1996

Decline in unemployment among immigrants

Registered unemployment among immigrants in Norway fell from 14.1 to 13.3 per cent from August 1995 to August this year. During the same period the jobless rate for the entire population fell from 5.2 to 4.5 per cent. The largest decline in the unemployment rate was seen among male immigrants from Africa, Asia, and South and Central America.

In August this year 12,846 immigrants were registered as totally without work at local employment offices. This is a decline of 111 persons from the year before. If immigrants from Bosnia-Herzegovina and the former Yugoslavia are excluded, the drop in joblessness totals about 500 persons.

Largest decline among African men

A total of 13.8 per cent of male immigrants in the labour force were registered as jobless at the end of August 1996, against 15.1 per cent at the same time the year before. The decline in the unemployment rate was the biggest among male immigrants from Africa, Asia, and South and Central America. For men in the general population unemployment declined from 5.0 to 4.3 per cent. Among immigrant women the jobless rate this year is almost unchanged compared to last year. The percentage of immigrant women registered as completely without work was 12.6 per cent in August 1996, compared to 12.7 in August last year. The reason for the modest decline in unemployment among immigrant women is mainly due to growth in the number of unemployed women from Bosnia and the former Yugoslavia. For women in the general population, unemployment fell from 5.4 to 4.7 per cent in the same period.

Although the number of unemployed non-Western immigrants now shows clear signs of subsiding, this group still has a jobless rate that is more than four times that of Norwegian-born and Western immigrants. The highest registered unemployment is among men from Africa, with 25.8 per cent. Joblessness among women is highest among those from Eastern Europe, with 22.2 per cent unemployment.

New Statistics

Unemployment among immigrants, 3rd quarter 1996.
Statistics are published four times a year in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics. More information: Jørn Ivar Hamre, tel. +47 21 09 49 29, e-mail: ham@ssb.no or Jan Erik Sivertsen, tel. +47 21 09 47 82, e-mail: jsi@ssb.no.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 50, 1996