Labour force survey, seasonally-adjusted figures, April 2002

The number of unemployed persons, seasonally adjusted, increased by 4 000 from the 3-months period December 2001- February 2002 to March - May 2002. In per cent of the labour force the number of unemployed persons increased by 0.2 percentage points, which is slightly within the error margins. Seasonally adjusted figures of registered unemployed persons at the Employment Offices the last year indicate an increasing unemployment.

In the same period the numbers of employed persons increased by 3 000, which is within the error margins.

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 the EU and the OECD: 7.6 and 6.8 per cent

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Norway increased from 3.6 per cent in January this year to 3.8 per cent in April, while the average unemployment rate for the EU member countries increased from 7.5 to 7.6 per cent. The unemployment rate in the OECD-countries as a whole increased from 6.7 to 6.8 per cent in the same period. In April 2002 the unemployment rate was 6.0 in USA, 0.4 percentage point higher than in January this year. In the same period the unemployment rate rose to 5.3 per cent in Sweden. This is according to figures from the Eurostat and the OECD .

Man-weeks worked

The number of man-weeks worked increased by 13 000 from the 3-months period December 2001- February 2002 to March - May this year. Due to different pre-corrections for holydays, the interpretations of the figures of man-weeks are especially uncertain.

Previous to the seasonal adjustment, we make adjustments for holidays that fall in random months every year and other holidays. Due to the fact that the holidays May the 1st, May the 17th, Ascension Day and the day after Whitsunday all fell on weekdays in May 2002, we adjust the figure of man-weeks worked up by 343 000 before seasonal adjustment. The adjustments are made so that the relative change in average weekly working hours from November 2001 to May 2002 is like last year's. For the same reason man-weeks worked May last year was pre-adjusted up by 287 000, but in 2001 the day after Whitsunday was in June.

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 April is the average of the estimates from March, April and May.

Tables:

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