Registered unemployed among immigrants (discontinued in Statistics Norway), Q4 2015

Immigrants from non-Nordic countries in Western Europe had the strongest growth in registered unemployment at 0.7 percentage points, while immigrants from Africa had a decrease of 1.2 percentage points. Many immigrants from Western Europe work within the oil-related sector, which means they are particularly affected by the reductions within these industries.

Despite the decrease in the unemployment rate, immigrants from Africa still have the highest unemployment level, at 11.3 per cent in the 4th quarter. Among immigrants from non-Nordic countries in Western Europe the registered unemployment rate was 4.1 per cent. Immigrants from regions with a large share of refugees usually have a higher unemployment rate than other immigrants. The only exception is the immigrants from EU countries in Eastern Europe, who mainly consist of labour immigrants. This group had the second largest unemployment rate in November 2015, at 8.2 per cent.

Who are included in the statistics?

The unemployment figures, which in these statistics are based on unemployed persons registered with the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Organisation, only consist of persons with permission to stay in Norway, and who are registered as residents in Norway (in the Central Population Register). The large number of asylum seekers who came to Norway during the autumn of 2015 are not included in these figures.

The unemployment rate of a group is calculated as a share of the labour force within that group. The labour force is the total number of employed and registered unemployed persons. 

More than one third of the unemployed are immigrants

In total, 79 200 people were registered as unemployed in the 4th quarter of 2015. Of these, about 29 600 were immigrants, which is a share of 37 per cent of the total unemployed. This share was almost the same in November 2014.

More unemployed men

The registered unemployment among male immigrants has increased over the past year from 6.7 to 7.2 per cent. Among men in the rest of the population, unemployment rose from 2.1 to 2.6 per cent. Among immigrant women, the unemployment rate decreased from 7.1 to 6.8 per cent in November 2015, while remaining stable among women in the rest of the population, at 1.7 per cent. The gender disparities are mostly due to the economic decline within the male dominated oil-industries.

Increase among participants on labour market schemes

A total of 1 861 more immigrants took part in labour market schemes in November 2015 than in November 2014, which is an increase of 35 per cent within this participant group. Participants without an immigrant background had an increase of 28.6 per cent. A total of 7 207 immigrants took part in labour market schemes in the 4th quarter of 2015, making up 43 per cent of the total participant group. Most of the immigrant participants were from Asia, Africa and EU countries in Eastern Europe.

Lower unemployment among Norwegian-born to immigrant parents than immigrants

Norwegian-born to immigrant parents is still a rather small group of unemployed persons. This group constituted 1 072 registered unemployed persons in the 4th quarter of 2015. A large share of this group is aged 15-29 years, and the unemployment rate within this age group was 4.2 per cent, which was 3 percentage points below the immigrant group at the same age (at 7.2 per cent) and 1.1 percentage points higher than the corresponding age group in the rest of the population (at 3.1 per cent).

Within the age group 15-29 years, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 percentage points among the Norwegian-born to immigrant parents and went slightly up by 0.1 percentage point among immigrants. In the rest of the population, unemployment rose by 0.3 percentage points.