Content
Published:
This is an archived release.
Both unemployment and employment remained unchanged
Unemployment has been stable since the summer of last year, and it was 2.4 per cent of the labour force in July 2008. The growth in employment has declined since the autumn of last year, and has now come to an end.
There has been growth in the employment since the summer of 2005. The growth was at its highest in the autumn of last year, but has declined during 2008 and it has now ceased. Adjusted for seasonal variations, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) shows that the number of employed increased by 2 000 from March (as measured by the average of the three months from March to May) to July (as measured by the average of the three months from June to August). A change of 2 000 is inside the error margin.
Stable unemployment
The unemployment rate stood at 2.4 per cent of the labour force in July (as measured by the average of the three months from June to August), the same as in April (as measured by the average of the three months from March to May. Since the summer of 2007, unemployment has moved between 2.4 and 2.6 per cent, and this is inside the error margin of the LFS. Seasonally adjusted figures for people registered unemployed and on government measures to promote employment with the Labour and Welfare Organisation (NAV) were unchanged from April to July.
Man-weeks worked
From April (as measured by the average of the three months from March to May) to July (as measured by the average of the three months from June to August) the average number of man-weeks (37.5 hours) worked each week increased by 4 000 adjusted for seasonal variations. This is inside the error margin in the LFS.
Unemployment down in many countries, up in the US
Unemployment decreased in many countries during the period April to July, including Sweden, Denmark, France and Germany. In the US, however, unemployment rose from 5.0 to 5.7 per cent in the same period. All figures refer to seasonally adjusted data from Eurostat .
Employment and unemployment figures include permanent residentsThe LFS only includes persons who are registered as residents in the population register. Persons working in Norway, but who are not registered as permanent residents or who are planning to stay for less than six months, are not included in the number of employed in the LFS. Some of these will later become registered residents and then be included in the population covered by the LFS. Statistics Norway publishes separate figures for registered non-residents once a year. See short-term immigrants . |
Uncertain figuresThe purpose of making adjustments for seasonal variations is to describe the development over the last year and provide estimates of change between the last two three-month periods, corrected for seasonal variations. In order to reduce uncertainty, the published series are three-month moving averages of the seasonally adjusted figures. For instance, the figures for February represent the average of the estimates for January, February and March. Quarterly LFS figures, not seasonally adjusted, are presented in a separate article . |
Tables:
The statistics is published with Labour force survey.
Contact
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Arbeidsmarked og lønn
E-mail: arbeidsmarked@ssb.no
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Erik Herstad Horgen
E-mail: erik.horgen@ssb.no
tel.: (+47) 93 08 68 62
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Ole Sandvik
E-mail: ole.sandvik@ssb.no
tel.: (+47) 99 04 82 06