Halt in employment growth

Adjusted for normal seasonal fluctuations, growth in Norway's employment appears to have come to a standstill, with signs of a declining trend in 1999. First quarter 1999 employment was nevertheless up 17,000 from first quarter 1998. Unemployment in first quarter 1999 was 3.1 per cent, the lowest first quarter rate since 1988 and 0.4 percentage point lower than in first quarter 1998. The figures for the most recent quarters nevertheless indicate that according to the Labour Force Survey, the decline in unemployment has come to a stop and that there are certain signs of an increase in 1999.

The percentage of economically active persons in the population (16-74 years of age) in the first quarter was 72.4 per cent, against 72.5 per cent in the same quarter last year. Compared with first quarter 1998, labour force participation declined by 0.4 percentage point for men and rose by 0.2 percentage point for women. There was an increase in labour force participation among the youngest. Seasonally adjusted, the number of economically active persons has remained virtually unchanged over the past six months.

Compared with first quarter 1998 there was a distinct decline in industrial jobs while employment grew in business as well as health and social services. In construction, the number of employed persons was about the same as in first quarter 1998, while the number of man-weeks declined.

New Statistics
Labour Force Survey, 1st quarter 1999.
The statistics are published quarterly in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics. Detailed statistics are published in the Basic Tables from the Labour Force Survey. For more information contact: Ole.Sandvik@ssb.no, tel. +47 21 09 45 77, or Inger.Haland@ssb.no, tel. +47 21 09 47 80.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 18, 1999