Content
About the statistics
Definitions
-
Name and topic
-
Name: Registered unemployed (terminated in Statistics Norway)
Topic: Labour market and earnings
-
Responsible division
-
Division for Labour Market and Wage Statistics
-
Definitions of the main concepts and variables
-
Unemployed is defined as persons who are seeking income-earning work and who are available to carry out such work. In addition, these persons must not have had any work for pay or profit in the preceding two weeks. Completely laid off workers are considered unemployed.
Participants of ordinary labour market measures are jobseekers who, during the reference period, took part in a measure aimed for ordinary jobseekers.
Persons with a reduced capacity to work are defined as jobseekers who, due to physical, mental or social impairments, have problems finding work. These include persons who are assessed by NAV with a view to occupational rehabilitation or who are currently undergoing rehabilitation.
Persons with a reduced capacity to work taking part in a measure are occupationally handicapped persons who are taking part in a measure other than what is referred to as “vocational rehabilitation” (section 2543). This covers a number of different types of measures: persons with a reduced capacity who are seeking rehabilitation, wage subsidies, work practice, training, employment measures, leave and temporary positions, follow-up, assessment measures, adapted work, other measures, occupational rehabilitation, health-related review/treatment, job creation, setting up a business.
Persons with a reduced capacity to work not taking part in a measure consist of the following groups
- Reduced capacity to work, awaiting follow-up decision
- Reduced capacity to work, no need for measures
- Reduced capacity to work, awaiting plan
- Reduced capacity to work, awaiting measures.
As from March 2010, Statistics Norway no longer publishes figures for this group because the introduction of assessments of a person’s capacity to work in NAV in October 2008 led to an inflow of persons with a reduced capacity to work who did not have an immediate need for measures. The number of persons with a reduced capacity to work steadily increased throughout 2009. Although the majority of these would have been occupationally handicapped, the number of persons with a reduced capacity to work with no need for an occupational measure increased gradually in 2009. The introduction of a work assessment allowance in March 2010 resulted in twice as many persons with a reduced capacity to work. For more information, see the article «Personer med nedsatt arbeidsevne – Hvem er de?» (in Norwegian only) in Arbeid og velferd nr. 1-2011 by NAV.
Unemployment rate: The number of persons registered as unemployed as a percentage of the labour force (the sum of those employed and registered as unemployed). The total figure for the labour force is obtained from the Labour Force Survey annual avarage of the preceding year, while the sum of the employee figures and registered unemployed (NAV) is used to break down the figure at municipal level. The employee figures where collected from NAV’s Employer before 2015, and from 2015 and beyond from a-ordningen. For further explanation of the transition to a-ordningen, we refer to the employment statistics: http://www.ssb.no/en/arbeid-og-lonn/statistikker/regsys
Age: In the tables under closed time series in StatBank, age is measured at the end of the year. In new tables where age is included, the age definition is changed to apply as of the 16th of the reference month. This is in order to improve the consistency between NAV’s figures and Statistics Norway’s figures on registered unemployed persons by age.
Level of education: Statistics Norway has no information on the level of education of many immigrants. Figures from 2014 include an estimated level of education for missing values for these immigrants. For more information see About the statistics at www.ssb.no/utdanning/statistikker/utniv.
The figures on registered unemployed persons by education are not the same as NAV's unemployment figures for education. NAV figures show self-reported highest commenced education. Statistics Norway's figures show the person's highest completed education mainly based on reports from education institutions. For more information, see About the statistics.Data on residence is retrieved from the National Population Register. For persons who are not registered as resident in Norway, but who are registered as jobseekers in Norway, residence data is retrieved from ARENA.
-
Standard classifications
-
Breakdown by municipality is in accordance with the list of municipalities as of 1 January in the year the statistics are produced.
Additional information
The statistics cover persons registered as unemployed and persons on NAV initiatives in November each year, as from 2015. Figures were previously published every month. NAV publishes monthly figures. Statistics Norway publishes monthly figures for a broader group of unemployed persons through the Labour Force Survey (LFS).