Content
Published:
This is an archived release.
Continued growth in employment
The number of employed rose by 30 000 from September to December 2007. The unemployment rate was 2.4 per cent in December.
Adjusted for seasonal variations, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) shows that the number of employed increased by 30 000 or 1.2 per cent from September (as measured by the average of the three months from August to October) to December (as measured by the average of the three months from November to January). The strong growth comes from both a general increase in labour force participation and immigration, especially from the new EU countries in Eastern Europe. A larger part of the immigrants are allowed to stay for more than six months, which means that they are included in the LFS from the first day of stay.
Unemployment nearly unchanged
The unemployment rate stood at 2.4 per cent of the labour force in December (as measured by the average of the three months from November to January), down from 2.6 per cent in September (as measured by the average of the three months from August to October). The 0.2 percentage points decrease (4 000 people) is inside the error margin of the LFS. Seasonally adjusted figures for people registered unemployed and on government measures to promote employment with the Labour and Welfare Organisation (NAV) showed a decrease in employment of 3 000 in the same period. While the number of registered unemployed with NAV has declined throughout 2007, the number of unemployed in the LFS remained stable from the summer of 2007 to the end of 2007. The LFS also showed a decrease in registered unemployed with NAV, but it also showed an increase in unemployed persons not found in the NAV register. The majority of these persons are young people in education.
Man-weeks worked
From September (as measured by the average of the three months from August to October) to December (as measured by the average of the three months from November to January) the average number of man-weeks (37.5 hours) worked each week decreased by 21 000 adjusted for seasonal variations.
Unemployment down in many countries, but up in the US
There was a decrease in unemployment in many countries during the period, including Sweden, Denmark, France and Germany. In the US, however, unemployment rose. All figures refer to seasonally adjusted data from Eurostat .
Employment and unemployment figures include permanent residentsThe LFS only includes persons who are registered as residents in the population register. Persons working in Norway, but who are not registered as permanent residents or who are planning to stay for less than six months, are not included in the number of employed in the LFS. Some of these will later become registered residents and then be included in the population covered by the LFS. Statistics Norway publishes separate figures for registered non-residents once a year. See short-term immigrants . |
Uncertain figuresThe 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 February represent the average of the estimates for January, February and March. Quarterly LFS figures, not seasonally adjusted, are presented in a separate article . |
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