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Published:
This is an archived release.
Unemployment 3.0 per cent
Unemployment was up by 12 000 from September to December, and constituted 3.0 per cent of the labour force in December 2008. Employment was stable in the same period.
Adjusted for seasonal variations, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) shows that the number in employment increased by 3 000 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). This is inside the error margin, and considering the error margins, employment has been stable since May 2008. The growth in employment first came to an end for the age group 16-24, but has now also ceased for the age group 25-74. For figures by age, see StatBank .
Rising unemployment
The unemployment rate increased from 2.5 per cent of the labour force in September (as measured by the average of the three months from August to October) to 3.0 per cent in December (as measured by the average of the three months from November to January). The unemployment figure was up by 12 000. Most of the increase was among people aged 25-74. Seasonally-adjusted figures for people registered unemployed and on government initiatives to promote employment with the Labour and Welfare Organisation (NAV) increased by 10 000 from September to December.
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NAV reports that 4 700 persons were incorrectly registered unemployed in February 2010. The erroneous figure was lower in previous months, but dates back to October 2008.This has no consequence for the LFS-numbers published by Statistics Norway, only for the comparisons with NAV's figures. Read more on NAV's website, or contact stein.langeland@nav.no |
Unemployment up in many countries
Unemployment increased in many countries from September to December, including the USA, Sweden, Denmark and France, while remaining stable in Germany. All figures refer to seasonally-adjusted data from Eurostat .
Man-weeks worked
From September to December, the average number of man-weeks (37.5 hours) worked each week decreased by 58 000. With New Year’s Eve being on a Wednesday in the first week of January, it seems that people took more days off this week than is usual, and this may partly explain the large decline in man-weeks worked.
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 in employment in the LFS. If these people lose their job, it does not count as a fall in employment or a rise in unemployment. Statistics Norway publishes separate figures for registered non-residents once a year. See short-term immigrants . |
Uncertain figuresThe purpose of making seasonal adjustments is to describe the development over the last year, corrected for seasonal variations. In order to reduce uncertainty, the published series are three-month moving averages of the seasonally-adjusted figures. However, uncertainty means that sampling errors must be considered when interpreting the figures from the LFS. We normally compare the latest non-overlapping three-month periods. An overview of sampling errors in the LFS can be found in “ About the statistics ”, chapter 5 section 3. |
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Quarterly LFS figures, not seasonally adjusted, are presented in a separate article . |
RevisionsThe complete time series is re-estimated each month, and this may cause some adjustments of previously published figures. See Revisions for more information . |
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