Registered unemployed among immigrants (discontinued in Statistics Norway), Q2 2016

Within the rest of the population the unemployment rate went slightly up from 2.0 to 2.1 per cent. In the whole population, the unemployment rate was 2.9 per cent in May 2016.There were various changes among the different immigrant groups. Immigrants from the EU countries in the east and those from North America and Oceania had a decrease at 0.4 percentage points, while immigrants from Western Europe (except the Nordic countries) had an increase at 0.3 percentage points. There was also an increase among immigrants from Latin America, at 0.5 percentage points. The remaining groups had only marginal reductions in the unemployment rate.

Increase among participants on labour market schemes

Conversely, the number of immigrants who participated on labour market schemes went up by 2 471 from May 2015 to May 2016, which constituted a growth of 44.3 per cent within this participant group. The participant rate also increased. When the rate of unemployed and participants on labour market schemes are added together (i.e. the gross unemployment rate as a percentage of the labour force), there was a slight growth at 0.3 percentage points among immigrants during the last year. Also within the rest of the population the number of participants went up (by 33.2 per cent), while the participant rate slightly increased. Thus, the gross unemployment rate also increased by 0.3 percentage points within this population group.

African immigrants still have the highest unemployment rate

Despite a small decrease, immigrants from Africa still have the highest unemployment rate, at 11.2 per cent in the 2nd quarter, which is due to the large percentage of refugees within this group. Next were immigrants from the EU countries in Eastern Europe at 8.4 per cent. Immigrants from Latin America and Asia had rates of 7.9 and 7.5 per cent respectively, while those from Eastern Europe outside the EU had 6.6 per cent registered unemployed. As usual, the remaining groups had rates far below the immigrant average: Western-Europe (4.1 per cent), North America and Oceania (3.1 per cent) and the Nordic countries (3.0 per cent).

Norwegian-born to immigrant parents

Norwegian-born to immigrant parents is still a rather small group of unemployed persons. This group constituted 1 100 registered unemployed persons in the 2nd quarter of 2016. A large share of this group is aged 15-29 years, and the unemployment rate within this age group was 4.2 per cent. Immigrants and the rest of the population at the same age had 7.7 and 3.1 per cent unemployed respectively. The immigrants had an unchanged unemployment rate, while Norwegian-born to immigrant parents and the rest of the population aged 15-29 years had increases of 0.2 and 0.4 percentage points respectively.