Employment in the petroleum industry and related industries 2011

This report gives a description of employment in the petroleum industry and related industries which produce goods and services targeting the petroleum industry. This last group is referred to as petroleum related industries. The main focus in this report is on the situation in 2010 and 2011, but some figures go back to 2003.

In 2011 there where 69 306 employees in the petroleum and petroleum-related industries combined. Of these, 65 293 were settled in Norway, while 4 013 were settled in other countries and were only in Norway as part of their work assignment. Since a characteristic of offshore work is shift rotation with long periods on leave, working offshore is suitable for long commutes.

Between 2010 and 2011 employment increased by 4 489 persons, or 6.5 percent, which was a considerably larger increase in employment compared to the period between 2009 and 2010. Employed foreign residents increased by as much as 15 percent between 2010 and 2011.

While most of the activity in the petroleum industry and the petroleum-related industries is located offshore and in a few municipalities in Western Norway, employees are settled in almost all Norway’s municipalities, or as much as 420 out of the total of 430 municipalities. Most municipalities house only a few employees from these industries. Sola and Stavanger are the two municipalities with the highest ratio of employees working in petroleum industries, about 14 percent. Stord was the municipality with highest proportion of residents employed in petroleum related industries, 16 percent.

Compared to the rest of Norway’s private sector, a larger proportion of employees in the petroleum and petroleum-related industries have higher education but a lower percentage of female employees, although the percentage of female employees has increased from 16.4 percent in 2003 to 20.3 percent in 2011. This increase in female employment consists largely of higher educated women. 55 percent of female employees had a higher education, compared to 34 percent of male employees.

A higher percentage of immigrants employed in the petroleum industries have a background from Western Europe, compared to immigrants employed in petroleum related industries as well as the rest of private sector in Norway.