Reports 2017/30
Young people on the labour market
Ad hoc module to the Labour Force Survey 2016
In 2016, some extra questions were added to the Labour force survey (LFS) asking people aged 15-34 about their education, job seeking and work experience. This is a very heterogeneous group concerning labour force participation. Most of the youth below 20 years of age still attending school. However, one third of them had a job in 2016, inclusive part-time jobs while going to school. Among people aged 20-24 the employment rate was 64 per cent in 2016, and half of them had a full-time job. In the age group 30-34 more than 80 per cent was employed, close to the level for the most economically active population between 35 and 55 years of age.
There is an element of risk for young people if they are neither in employment nor in education or training for longer periods of time. In Norway, the number of people aged 15-29 in this category has remained rather stable at 7 per cent during the last four years, up from 6 per cent from the period 2006-2012
More than half of the people aged 20-34 had performed some paid or unpaid work during their education according to the ad hoc module to the Labour Force Survey 2016. In most cases the work was paid, often as a part of the education, for example as apprentice or trainee.
1 out of 10 had dropped out of school or a study. 30 per cent of them left upper secondary school, 33 per cent a college and 21 per cent a university without completing the education.
For people aged 15-34 as a whole, their first job after leaving education was a permanent one for 60 per cent. 39 per cent got a temporary job, while just 1 per cent was self-employed. Here there was a marked difference between males and females. While 67 per cent of the young men got a permanent job, only 53 per cent of the young women did the same.
For the youngest people in this group, those aged 15-19, two out of three started work as a temporary employee just after leaving education, while the opposite was due for the oldest, those aged 30-34, where two out of three had got a permanent job.