Fewer employed in Rogaland

Apart from a slight decline in employment for those working in Hedmark, employment grew for all counties in Northern Norway, Eastern Norway and in Trøndelag. The situation in Southern and Western Norway was somewhat different, with reduced employment in all counties except Øst-Agder and Sogn og Fjordane, where employment grew by 0.2 and 0.7 per cent respectively. 

More employed women

The increase in employment from the 4th quarter of 2015 to the 4th quarter of 2016 was due to an increase of around 4 000 women in employment and a marginal decline in the number of employed men. The development was primarily driven by decreases in employment in male dominated industries, such as mining and quarrying and manufacturing by 11.8 and 3.6 per cent. Between 76 and 80 per cent of the employees in these industries are male. Women are overrepresented in education and human health and social work activities. In the same period, employment in these industries grew by 1.6 and 1.5 per cent respectively. 

Fewer employed in secondary industries

The decline in mining and quarrying and manufacturing led to lower employment in secondary industries, despite an increase of 2.3 per cent in construction. The number of employed persons decreased by 1.8 per cent in the 4th quarter of 2016 compared to the same period in the previous year. The secondary industries employ 19.4 per cent of all employees. A total of 2.2 per cent of all employed persons had their main job in the primary industries in the reference period, following a decrease in employment of 2.8 per cent from the previous year. 

Nearly one in three employed in public administration

In the 4th quarter of 2016, almost 824 000 had their main job in public administration, an increase of 1.2 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2015. During the same period, the number of employees in the private sector (including public enterprises) decreased by 0.3 per cent to just under 1.8 million employees. 

Lower share of employment

Despite the slight increase in employment, the share of the population in employment fell due to a population growth (0.9 per cent) that was higher than the employment growth (0.2 per cent). From the 4th quarter of 2015 to the 4th quarter of 2016, the share of the population in employment decreased by 0.5 percentage points. For people aged 15 to 74, the share in employment was 65.6 per cent. The only county where the share in employment went up was Finnmark, with an increase of 0.2 percentage points.