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This is an archived release.
Continuing growth in employment
Adjusted for seasonal variations, employment rose by 24 000 people from July to October, according to new figures from Statistics Norway’s Labour Force Survey The number of unemployed people fell by 9000 over the same period.
The increase in the seasonally adjusted employment figure from July (the June-August period) to October (September-November) 2006 is consistent with the upward trend since the summer of 2005.
The number of unemployed people fell by 9 000 from July to October. This gives an unemployment rate of 3.1 per cent in October, against 3.4 per cent in July. This decline in seasonally adjusted unemployment from July to October is consistent with developments since the summer of 2005. The last bottom level was in the beginning of 1999, when the unemployment rate was 2.8 per cent.
Seasonally adjusted figures of persons registered as unemployed with the Labour and Welfare Organisation, show a decline of 7 000 from July to October 2006.
Falling unemployment also in Germany and France
The unemployment rate for the EU15 fell from 7.3 to 7.2 per cent from July to October. Several large EU countries saw a decrease in unemployment during this period: In Germany, the unemployment rate fell from 8.3 to 8.1 per cent,,and in France from 9.0 to 8.7. In Denmark, the unemployment rate fell from 3.7 to 3.3 per cent. Also in the USA, there was a decrease in the unemployment rate, from 4.8 to 4.4 per cent. (All figures refer to seasonally adjusted data from Eurostat .)
Still increase in the number of man-weeks worked
From July to October 2006, the number of man-weeks worked rose by 29 000. This is consistent with the growth in these figures since the beginning of 2004.
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Changes in the LFS from 2006
With effect from January 2006, some improvements have been made in the Norwegian LFS. This will make the employment and unemployment figures more comparable with figures from the EU-countries. In addition, actual working hours will be measured more accurately. Therefore, the changes have lead to a level shift in the LFS figures. To maximize the comparability before/after 2006, the figures for the months in 2006 have been calculated according to the LFS prior to the changes. Quarterly LFS figures, i.e. not seasonally adjusted, are presented in a separate article . The belonging tables contain figures for the third quarter of 2006, both according the LFS before and after the change. This will give an insight in the effects of the LFS changes on the various data series. For more details on the LFS, the seasonal adjustment method and the changes in the LFS, you can click on the links at the left side of this page. |
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Uncertain figures
The purpose of making adjustments for seasonal variations is to describe the development over the last year and provide estimates 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 October represent the average of the estimates for September, October and November. |
Tables:
The statistics is published with Labour force survey.
Contact
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Arbeidsmarked og lønn
E-mail: arbeidsmarked@ssb.no
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Erik Herstad Horgen
E-mail: erik.horgen@ssb.no
tel.: (+47) 93 08 68 62