Labour force survey, seasonally-adjusted figures, February 2002

A total of 2 276 000 persons were employed and 97 000 persons were unemployed in the 1^{s t} quarter of 2002 according to figures from the LFS, not seasonally adjusted.

Unemployment in EU and OECD: 7.8 and 6.9 per cent

While the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Norway was 3.8 per cent in November and 3.7 in February 2002, it increased from 7.6 to 7.7 per cent as an average in the EU. The rate in the OECD-countries total decreased from 6.8 to 6.7. In February 2002 the unemployment rate was 5.5 in USA (5.6 in November 2001), 5.1 in Sweden (5.0 in November), and 4.2 in Denmark (January, unchanged from November).

Man-weeks worked

The number of man-weeks worked decreased by 23 000 from the 4^{t h} quarter last year to the 1^{s t} quarter this year.

Previous to the seasonal adjustment, we also make adjustments for holidays that fall in random months every year. This year the Easter holiday was in March, while it was in April the two previous years. Because of this, the man-weeks worked figure for March 2002 was based on interviews only from three weeks. The Easter week was left out.

The purpose of adjusting for seasonal variations is to describe the development during the last year and to give figures for change between the last two 3-month periods, cleared for normal seasonal variations. In order to reduce uncertainty, the presented series are three months moving averages of the seasonally adjusted figures. For instance the figure from February is the average of the estimates from January, February and March.

See also : Labour Force Survey, 1st quarter 2002

Tables:

• Table 1. Persons aged 16-74 years by labour force status, seasonally adjusted, three-months moving average. 1000