Labour force survey, seasonally-adjusted figures, July 2002

Norwegian unemployment has shown a weak increase since the autumn of 1999 according to seasonally adjusted figures from the LFS. From the 3-month period March-May 2002 to June-August total unemployment decreased by 5 000. In per cent of the labour force the number of unemployed persons decreased by 0.2 percentage points, which is within the error margins for the change in figures. On the other hand the seasonally adjusted figures for registered unemployed at the Employment Offices indicate an increasing unemployment.

The employment has from 1999 and onwards shown only a slight increase, after a period of strong growth. From the 3-month period March-May 2002 to June-August total employment increased by 2 000, which is clearly within the error margins.

A total of 2 303 000 persons were employed and 95 000 persons were unemployed in the 2^{n d} quarter of 2002 according to figures from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), not seasonally adjusted.

Man-weeks worked

The number of man-weeks worked increased by 11 000 from the 3-month period March-May 2002 to June-August, which also is within the error margins.

Unemployment in the EU and the OECD: 7.7 and 7.0 per cent

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Norway decreased from 3.8 per cent in April this year to 3.6 per cent in July. In the same period unemployment increased from 7.5 to 7.7 per cent as an average in the EU member countries. The unemployment rate in the OECD-countries as a whole increased from 6.9 to 7.0 per cent in the same period. In July 2002 the unemployment rate amounted to 5.9 in USA, 0.1 percentage point lower than in April. In the same period the unemployment rate decreased from 5.1 to 4.9 per cent in Sweden. This is according to figures from OECD .

Prior to 1996 there was only one survey week each month in the LFS. In August in the reference year 1991 the survey week was the second week of the month, where the proportion on holiday is high. The proportion of the population on holiday in August the years after 1995, when all weeks were surveyed, was a little lower compared with August 1991. Due to this, August has had too few leave substitutes since 1996. The employment figures for August this year were therefore adjusted upwards by 13 600 before seasonal adjustment. This leave substitute adjustment was 19 400 August last year.

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 July is the average of the estimates from June, July and August.

Tables:

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