Employment among immigrants, register-based, 2001, 4th quarter

120 000 first generation immigrants were registered as employees while 7 500 were self-employed in the 4^{t h}. quarter 2001.

Immigrants from the Nordic countries had the highest total employment rate of 73.3 per cent while African immigrants had the lowest of 46.2 per cent. Among the non-westerners - immigrants from South- and Central America had the highest employment rate of 62.3 per cent.

Higher employment among Norwegian-born by foreign-born immigrants

For the first time Statistics Norway also release the employment numbers among Norwegian-born by foreign-born parents. This group had a total employment rate of 63.4 per cent. In absolute numbers they counted 6 302 persons and were mostly employees. Only 181 persons were self-employed. Also in this connection the Nordic group had the highest employment rate of 76.6 per cent. The group with East European family background had the next highest rate of 72.4 per cent.

One must however be aware of the relative high proportion of young people among those born in Norway by foreign-born parents. Many of them are probably students who may influence the employment rates negatively. In spite of this fact the group with African family background had an employment rate of 61.8 per cent which was 15 percentage points higher than their parents' generation.

More females are employed among the Norwegian-born, 61.8 versus 54.0 among first generation immigrants. This fact reduces the gender differences in this group where the male's employment was 64.8 per cent. First generation immigrant men had in comparison an employment rate of 64.6 per cent.

Employed Norwegian-born by non-western-born parents had much higher portions of employed persons within retail trade and transport and communication, 23 and 12 per cent respectively, as opposed to the parent generation with 7 per cent in both industry groups. Only 2 per cent of the Norwegian-born by non-western-born parents were working within industrial cleaning as opposed to 7 per cent among the parent generation immigrants.

High rates of self-employed among western immigrants

The Nordic and Western European first generation immigrants had the highest rates of self-employed, both 5 per cent which slightly surpass the level of the whole population. Among the non-westerners - immigrants from Asia had the highest rate, 3 per cent.

The gender differences are smaller among first generation immigrants as opposed to the whole population as far as self-employment is concerned. While there were 6.9 per cent among men and 2.5 per cent among women in the entire population, the corresponding numbers among immigrants were 4.5 and 2.1 per cent respectively. The Western European women had the highest rate of self-employed among female immigrants, 4.2 per cent. All the other western women also had self-employment rates higher than women in the entire population.

28 per cent of all self-employed within hotels and restaurants are immigrants

Self-employed immigrants have a more deviant dispersion as some industries are concerned.

Hotels and restaurants is the most typical immigrant industry. We find 11 per cent of all self -employed immigrants within this industry as opposed to 2 per cent among self-employed in the entire population. Asian immigrants constitute the main immigrant group within this industry. We find 28 per cent of all Asian self-employed in this group. They counted 658 persons of in total 837 self-employed immigrants. These 837 persons constituted 28 per cent of all self-employed in Norwegian hotels and restaurants. There is also a high portion within retail trade among Asian self-employed, 18 per cent versus 6 per cent among self-employed in the entire population.

High employment among Nordic nationalities - but also among some non- westerners

As some single selected immigrant nationalities are concerned, we find employment rates above 70 per cent among first generation immigrants from the Nordic countries (except Denmark) and the Netherlands. On the other hand we find some non-western nationalities with a level of employment which exceeds some of the westerners. For instance immigrants from Chile and the Philippines had rates of employment of 66.8 and 65.7 per cent respectively, which represent a higher level than among immigrants from France, Italy and Spain. Also non-western nationalities such as Poland, Croatia, India and Sri Lanka had a rate of employment above 60 per cent which places them at the same level as the immigrants from the three western countries mentioned above. Immigrants from Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq had the lowest rates, 26.9, 32.6 and 40.4 respectively. This low level must, however, be connected with relative high shares of refugees with short time of residence in Norway compared with other non-western nationalities.