Labour force survey, Q3 2001

The proportion of economically active persons aged 16-24 has decreased last year. In the third quarter 2001 66 per cent of them participated in the labour force, a decrease of 2.4 percentage points from the third quarter last year. Among persons aged 55-66, however, the participation has increased, especially among the females.

In total employment only small changes occurred between the second and the third quarter 2001, but the unemployment has increased since April 2001.

More employees in business services

Compared with the third quarter 2000, there was a considerable increase in employment within business services. The growth within health and social work continued. Agriculture, domestic trade, hotels and restaurants, on the other hand, showed a decline in employment.

Unemployment at 3.6 per cent

A total of 86 000 persons were unemployed in the third quarter 2001, accounting for 3.6 per cent of the labour force, compared with 3.5 per cent the same quarter 2000. Unemployment has increased among men, but has remained unchanged among women.

The rate of long-term unemployment remained stable at 15 per cent last year. Long-term unemployed are those who have been continuously unemployed for more than a half-year at the time of the survey.

There were 68 000 underemployed in the third quarter 2001, i.e. part-time employed seeking more work. As a percentage of part-time employed, this corresponds to 12.2 per cent, almost the same as in the third quarter last year.

Unemployment in EU and OECD: 7.6 and 6.4 per cent

While the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Norway increased from 3.4 per cent inMay to 3.6 in August 2001, it remained unchanged at 7.6 per cent as an average in the EU. The rate in the OECD-countries total remained unchanged at 6.4. In August 2001 the unemployment rate was 4.9 in USA (4.4 in May 2001), 4.3 in Denmark (4.6 in May) and 4.7 in Sweden (5.0 in May).

Temporary employment unchanged

There were 211 000 temporary employed in the third quarter 2001, the same as in the third quarter last year. This corresponds to 10 per cent of all employees. The rate of temporary employment was highest in hotels, restaurants, health and social work.

Uncertain seasonally adjusted figures

Quality tests show that the seasonally adjusted LFS unemployment figures are uncertain. The seasonal-adjustment method has problems identifying a seasonal pattern for this series of figures. The random results are relatively large compared to the seasonal component; hence one must keep in mind that the unemployment figures contain a particularly high degree of uncertainty. For more information about the seasonally adjusted figures, see a separate article .