Labour force survey, seasonally-adjusted figures, May 2005

The number of unemployed people in May (the April-June period) stayed unchanged from the previous month (March-May). Seasonally adjusted figures of registered unemployment at job centres plus government measures to promote employment showed a small decline in the same period (from the previous month).

Following a period of negative development from the spring of 2002 to the summer of 2003, employment showed a more or less continuous rise until the end of 2004. From February (January-March) to May 2005, there were no significant changes in the number of employees.

Fall in unemployment internationally

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Norway was 4.7 per cent in May 2005, compared with 4.5 per cent in February. The rate in the EU area fell from 8.1 to 8.0 per cent, while the OECD area saw the rate fall from 6.8 to 6.6 per cent. In the same period, the unemployment rate fell from 5.4 to 5.1 per cent in the USA and stayed approximately unchanged in France and Germany at 9.8 and 9.6 per cent respectively. OECD and Eurostat figures for Denmark and Finland are only available for April 2005. Compared with January, unemployment in these two countries fell from 5.0 to 4.9 per cent and from 8.8 to 8.6 per cent respectively.

Man-weeks worked showed a downward trend between June 1998 and May 2003. Since then, we have seen signs of an increasing trend in these figures. From February to May 2005, man-weeks worked stayed unchanged.

Uncertain figures

Quality tests show that the seasonally adjusted LFS unemployment figures are uncertain. The seasonal-adjustment method has problems identifying a stable seasonal pattern for this series. The random component is relatively large compared with the seasonal component. The figures should therefore be treated with caution.

The purpose of adjusting for seasonal variations is to describe the development over the last year and provide figures of change between the last two three-month periods, corrected for normal seasonal variations. In order to reduce uncertainty, the published series are three-month moving averages of the seasonally adjusted figures. For instance, the figures for May represent the average of the estimates for April, May and June.

Tables:

• Table 1. Employment and unemployment for persons aged 16-74 years, seasonally adjusted, three-months moving average. Absolute figures in 1000 and unemployed persons in per cent of the labour force.