Registered unemployed among immigrants (discontinued in Statistics Norway), Q4 2004

Immigrants from North America and Oceania had the strongest decrease by 1.1 percentage points. Also immigrants from South- and Central -America and Eastern - Europe experienced some decrease, 0.6 and 0.5 percentage points respectively. African immigrants was the only group who experienced an increase in the unemployment rate, by 0.3 percentage points.

Decrease among men only

Only men experienced the decrease in unemployment rate - within the whole population and among immigrants - by 0.3 and 0.7 percentage points respectively. Among women in total a slight increase of 0.1 percentage point was recorded, while immigrant women had an increase of 0.3 percentage point. Despite these tendencies, men still had the highest registered unemployment rate, 3.8 versus 3.2 per cent in the whole population and 10.2 versus 8.5 per cent among immigrants.

Close to 18 per cent unemployed Africans

Immigrants from Africa experienced the highest unemployment rate at 17.7 per cent in November 2004, while immigrants from Asia had 12.4 per cent. The immigrants from Eastern Europe and South and Central America had rates almost at the same level, 10.3 and 9.7 per cent respectively. Immigrants from the Nordic countries as usual had the lowest unemployment rate at 4.2 per cent closely followed by the other western European immigrants at 4.4 per cent. Unemployment among immigrants from North America and Oceania came to 4,8 per cent.This is, however, the smallest immigrant group of only 200 recorded unemployed.

The high unemployment rate among African immigrants must be seen in connection to the relative high portion of newcomers within this group, especially refugees from Somalia.

The new EU countries

Immigrants from the new EU countries in Eastern Europe had in total an unemployment rate of 5.4 per cent at the end of November 2004. Immigrants from the other eastern European countries had a rate of 11.2 per cent. In other words, immigrants from the new EU countries experienced an unemployment rate closer to the western immigrants than the non - westerners. Both groups had a decrease in the unemployment rate of 0.2 percentage points (EU countries) and 0.6 percentage points (non EU countries).

Highest unemployment from 4 to 7 years of residence

The highest unemployment rate was recorded among immigrants with a time of residence of 4 to 7 years. Their rate was 2.9 percentage points higher than those with a shorter time of residence (8.6 versus 5.7 per cent). This difference is most likely due to the fact that many newcomers among the non-western immigrants (mostly refugees) are occupied with language- and job training before entering the labour force as registered job -seekers. Among immigrants with 7 years of residence or more the unemployment rate decreased, to 5.4 per cent.

Labour market schemes

The number of immigrants on ordinary labour market schemes (job programmes) decreased from

6 400 in November 2003 to 5 600 in November 2004. These people accounted for 29 per cent of all participants on such schemes last quarter and included mainly non-westerners.

As a percentage of the immigrant population, participation on labour market schemes decreased from 2.5 per cent to 2.1 per cent. In the whole population the participant rate was stable at 0.6 per cent.

Immigrants from Africa had the highest participant rate in November 2004 at 3.7 per cent. Immigrants from Asia and Eastern Europe had participation rates at 2.9 and 2.5 per cent respectively.

(Please note that the occupationally disabled are no longer included in these figures. As a result the 2003 figures are slightly lower than previously published figures.)

Tables:

• Table 1 Registered unemployed aged 16-74 years, by region of birth and sex. In absolute figures and per cent of the labour force. By the end of August 2003, November 2003, August 2004 and November 2004
• Table 2 Participants in ordinary labour market schemes (job programmes), by region of birth and sex. In absolute figures and per cent of persons aged 16-74 years. By the end of August 2003, November 2003, August 2004 and November 2004
• Table 3 Registered unemployed and participants in ordinary labour market schemes (job programmes), by region of birth and time of residence in Norway. In per cent of persons in total aged 16-74 years. By the end of November 2003 and 2004
• Table 4 Registered unemployed, by region of birth and county of residence. Absolute figures and in per cent of persons in total 16-74 years. By the end of November 2003
• Table 5 Registered unemployed, by region of birth and county of residence. Absolute figures and in per cent of persons in total 16-74 years. By the end of November 2004
• Table 6 Registered participants in ordinary labour market schemes, by region of birth and county of residence. Absolute numbers and in per cent of persons in total 16-74 years. By the end of November 2004
• Table 7 Registered unemployed first generation immgrants from Eastern Europe, by EU status of the country of birth. Absolute figures and in per cent of the labour force. By the end of November 2003 and 2004