On welfare benefits and not participating in the labour market

This report analyses the number of people receiving welfare benefits while not participating in the labour market. We look at those aged 15-66 years among the entire population and among immigrants. The data used in this report come from a register-based system on employment, education and benefits from Statistics Norway. According to the register data, about 519 700 persons aged 15-66 received at least one welfare benefit without participating in the labour market in 2010. This corresponds to 15.5 per cent of the population. Among these, 76 400 were immigrants – corresponding to 17.6 per cent.

Above, we have defined “not participating in the labour market” as not working. However, in labour market statistics, the labour force is defined as both employed and unemployed. If we instead define “not participating in the labour market” as “not in the labour force”, the number of persons who received a welfare benefit without participating in the labour market was 471 700. This corresponds to 14.0 per cent of the population. The figure among immigrants are reduces from 76 400 to 61 900 when we include the unemployed as participants on the labour market. This corresponds to 14.2 per cent of the immigrants aged 15-66 years.