Employment among immigrants, register-based, 2010, 4th quarter

Despite a very small decline in the employment rate, there was, however, a growth in the number of employed immigrants of nearly 23 700 from the fourth quarter of 2009 to 2010. When the employment rate among immigrants nevertheless falls a little, this is due to a relatively strong growth in the population basis caused by an expanded immigration.

Strongest decrease among immigrants from Africa

We can observe opposite tendencies among the various immigrant groups. Immigrants from Africa and Western Europe (except the Nordic countries) had the strongest decrease in the employment rate, at 1.4 and 0.9 percentage points respectively. On the other hand, immigrants from Eastern Europe had the strongest increase; i.e. 0.5 percentage points among those outside the EU and 0.3 percentage points within the EU group. There was, however, no decline with regard to the number employed in any of the immigrant groups. We can observe a growth within all of them.

Employment rate among EU immigrants above national average

Immigrants from the Nordic countries had, as usual, the highest employment rate at 74.6 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010. Next to them we find immigrants from the other EU countries with rates at ca. 71 per cent. Within the other immigrant groups the employment rates were as follows: North America and Oceania; 64.1 per cent, South and Central America; 62.9 per cent, Eastern Europe outside the EU; 61.5 per cent, Asia; 53.3 per cent and Africa; 43.9 per cent. These differences in the level of employment between the country groups have been stable for several years irrespective of the economic cycles.

One of the factors behind the low employment rates among the Africans and partly the Asians is a relatively high proportion of refugees with a short period of residence in Norway within these groups, especially the African group. Many of the refugees and their reunified families are participating in introduction programmes and are thus outside the labour force during the first two years of their residence in Norway. Hence, the period of residence is of greater importance with regard to the level of employment among these immigrants than for the many labour immigrants from the EU countries who enter the labour market soon after arrival in Norway. In addition there are other factors that also influence the employment level. Among immigrants from some African and Asian countries we find very low employment rates among women compared to men, which reduce the average within these groups. This phenomenon concerns both established groups such as the Pakistani and the Turkish, and the more recently arrived immigrant groups from Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq.

Greatest gap to the whole population among immigrant women

Male immigrants had an employment rate of 65.8 per cent, while the female immigrants had 57.1 per cent employment in the fourth quarter of 2010. In the population as a whole, the rates were 71.6 and 66.5 per cent respectively. Thus, the gap to the respective genders in the population as a whole was larger among immigrant women (9.4 percentage points) than it was among men (5.8 percentage points) with regard to the level of employment.

More establishments with immigrants employed

The share of establishments with at least ten employees which had at least one immigrant employed, increased from 59.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 61.5 per cent in the corresponding quarter of 2010. Since the larger establishments more frequently have immigrants among their employees than the smaller ones, the share of employees who worked in establishments with at least one immigrant, is higher, i.e. 80.6 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010. This rate increased by 1.5 percentage points since the fourth quarter of 2009.

Norwegian-born with immigrant parents are closer to the young population as a whole

This group constitutes a rather young population, where nearly half are below 21 years of age (among those between 15 and 74 years of age), and many are likely to be students/pupils and thus not included in the labour force. However, if we look at the group of employed persons aged 20 to 24 years, the employment rate was 64.4 per cent, which is ca. 8 percentage points higher than the employment rate in the same age group among immigrants and 4.7 percentage points below the total average rate for this age group. We also see much the same differences among those aged 25 to 29 years. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2009, there were only marginal changes within these young population groups. It must, however, be emphasised that the Norwegian-born with immigrant parents still constitute a small group in the labour market, counting no more than 15 400 employed persons in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Tables:

• Table 1 Employed, by immigrant category, world region and sex . Q4 2009 and 2010. Absolute figures and in per cent of persons aged 15-74 years in each group
• Table 2 Employed, by immigrant category, world region and age. Absolute figures and in per cent of persons in total in each group. Q4 2010
• Table 3 Employed by immigrant category, world region, sex and labour market status. Absolute figures and in per cent of persons aged 15-74 years in each group. Q4 2010
• Table 4 Employed immigrants by world region of birth and period of residence in Norway. Absolute figures and in per cent of persons aged 15-74 years in each group. Q4 2010
• Table 5 Employed, by period of residence in Norway, age and world region of birth. Absolute figures and in per cent of persons in total in each group. Q4 2010
• Table 6 Employed aged 15-74 years, by industries, immigrant background and country group. Per cent. Q4 2010
• Table 7 Employed aged 15-74 years by industries and world region of birth. Per cent. Q4. 2010
• Table 8 Employed immigrants aged 15-74 years, by industries and world region of birth. Absolute figures and in per cent of employed in total within each industry group. Q4 2010
• Table 9 Employed immigrants, by selcted countries of birth and sex. Absolute figures and in per cent of persons aged 15-74 years within each group Q4 2010
• Table 10 Employees, by immigrant-background, country group and economic sector. Absolute figures and in per cent. Q4 2009 and 2010
• Table 11 Employed, by occupational group and country group of birth. Absolute numbers and in per cent. Q4 2010
• Table 12 Employed, by county of residence and country group of birth. Absolute numbers and in per cent of people 15-74 years in each group. Q4 2009 and 2010
• Table 13 People aged 15-74 years, by sex, world region of birth and labour force status. Per cent. Q4 2010
• Table 14 Establishments with at least 10 employees and employees in such establishments, after share of immigrants among the employees (15-74 years). Absolute figures and per cent of establishments/employees in each group. 4th quarter 2008, 4th quarter 2009 and 4th quarter 2010