Increased labour force participation among men

Published:

Labour force participation among men increased from the 2nd quarter of 2017 to the 2nd quarter of 2018, while there was a slight decrease among women.

Written by: Tor Petter Bø

The  labour force participation rate among men aged 15-74 was 73.3 per cent in the 2nd quarter of 2018, up from 72.6 in the same quarter the previous year, according to new figures from the Labour Force Survey. The increase applied for most of the age groups.

For women, the participation rate decreased from 67.7 to 67.3 per cent. The decrease was most significant among those aged 35-44, with more than 3 percentage points.

Figure 1. Persons (15-74 years) in the labour force, by sex. In per cent of the population in each group

Both sexes Males Females
Q2 2006 72.1 75.6 68.6
Q2 2007 72.8 76.2 69.3
Q2 2008 73.9 77.2 70.5
Q2 2009 73.3 76.4 70.2
Q2 2010 72.4 75.5 69.2
Q2 2011 71.9 74.5 69.1
Q2 2012 71.8 74.7 68.7
Q2 2013 71.3 74.4 68.2
Q2 2014 71.1 73.9 68.2
Q2 2015 71.5 74.0 68.8
Q2 2016 70.7 73.8 67.6
Q2 2017 70.2 72.6 67.7
Q2 2018 70.4 73.3 67.3

Figure 2. Persons (15-74 years) in the labour force, by age. In per cent of the population in each group

Q2 2017 Q2 2018
67-74 years 11.4 12.1
60-66 years 58.9 59.4
55-59 years 81.2 80.1
50-54 years 83.3 84.7
45-49 years 86.2 88.1
40-44 years 89.3 86.3
35-39 years 88.5 88.2
30-34 years 86.2 87.8
25-29 years 83.0 82.9
20-24 years 70.5 73.8
15-19 years 39.9 37.3

Decreased unemployment

The figures on unemployed persons decreased by 17 000 from the 2nd quarter of 2017 to the 2nd quarter of 2018. The fall in unemployment was both among men and women, and the rate was reduced from 4.5 to 3.9 per cent. The average period of unemployment decreased from 29,7 to 29,4 weeks.