Labour force survey, seasonally-adjusted figures, August 2002

Norwegian unemployment has shown a weak increase since the autumn of 1999 according to seasonally adjusted figures from the LFS. From the 2^{n d} quarter to the 3^{r d} quarter 2002 total unemployment decreased by 2 000 persons, which is within the error margins. In per cent of the labour force the number of unemployed persons were unchanged at 3.8 per cent. 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 2^{n d} quarter to the 3^{r d} quarter 2002 total employment decreased by 1 000 persons, which is clearly within the error margins.

A total of 2 298 000 persons were employed and 91 000 persons were unemployed in the 3^{r 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 decreased by 1 000 from the 2^{n d} quarter to the 3^{r d} quarter 2002, which also is within the error margins.

Unemployment in the EU and the OECD: 7.7 and 6.9 per cent

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Norway was unchanged at 3.8 per cent from May to August this year. In the same period unemployment increased from 7.6 to 7.7 per cent as an average in the EU member countries. The unemployment rate in the OECD-countries as a whole was unchanged at 6.9 per cent in the same period. In August 2002 the unemployment rate amounted to 5.7 in USA, 0.1 percentage point lower than in May. In the same period the unemployment rate decreased from 5.0 to 4.8 per cent in Sweden, and increased from 4.2 to 4.3 per cent in Denmark. This is according to figures from OECD .

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

Tables:

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