Six per cent of the private sector is employed in the ICT industry

The information and communications technology industry (ICT) is of major importance in all of the Nordic countries, but it is relatively small in Norway compared with the other Nordic countries. In 1996, 74,000 people were employed in this industry in Norway. The ICT industry is largest in Sweden, where it accounted for 10.5 per cent of the private sector employment in 1996, followed by Denmark with 8.8 per cent, Finland with 8.6 per cent, Norway with 6 per cent and Iceland with 5.1 per cent.

ICT services constitute by far the largest part of the ICT industry in all of the Nordic countries. Over eighty per cent of the persons employed in the ICT industry in Norway are employed in ICT service activities. Sweden and Finland are the countries with the highest employment in ICT manufacturing. Forty-six per cent of the Nordic ICT manufacturing employees work in Sweden, followed by twenty-eight per cent in Finland. Denmark had sixteen per cent of the employees in Nordic ICT manufacturing activities; Norway had ten per cent; and Iceland had less than 0.1 per cent.

Sweden also has the highest percentage of employees in the ICT service sector, but Denmark has a high percentage of employees in ICT services as well.

In the Norwegian ICT industry the largest number of people were employed in the wholesaling of ICT products. Nearly 30,000 people were employed in this business sector in 1996.

High education
In all of the Nordic countries the employees in the ICT industry have a high education compared with the general level of education in the private sector. Twenty-two per cent of the Norwegian labour force employed in ICT manufacturing had an education at the university level in 1996, whereas only six per cent had a university level education in manufacturing as a whole. Eighteen per cent of the employees in the ICT service industry had an education at the university level, but the corresponding figure for the private service sector as a whole was nine per cent in 1996. The labour force in ICT consulting services has the highest level of education in the ICT industry. Thirty-one per cent of the employees in this business sector had an education at the university level.

New Statistics
Information and communications technology in the Nordic countries, 1996.
These statistics are a collaboration among the statistical institutes in the Nordic countries, and the report, "The Information and Communication Technology Sector in the Nordic Countries - a first statistical description" has been published by the Nordic Council of Ministers. For more information, contact: Per.Oivind.Kolbjornsen@ssb.no, tel. +47 62 88 54 24.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 50, 1998