Content
Published:
This is an archived release.
Stable labour market
There were only small changes in the labour market from April to July. The unemployment rate was 3.0 per cent in July.
The seasonally-adjusted unemployment in July (average of June-August) of 3.0 per cent of the labour force corresponded to 81 000 persons. This was unchanged from April (average of March-May). In comparison, the number of people registered as unemployed or on government initiatives to promote employment with the Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) increased by 1 000 persons during the same period. These figures have also been adjusted for seasonal variations.
Stable employment
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) shows a decrease in employment by 4 000 from April to July, adjusted for seasonal variations. The decrease is within the LFS error margin. The population increased during the same period, so the employment rate went down 0.4 percentage points to 69.2 per cent in July. The employment rate is employed persons as a percentage of the population aged 15-74.
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The labour force is the total of employed and unemployed persons between 15 and 74 years of age. From April to July 2012, the LFS showed a decrease in employment of 4 000 persons, while the unemployment remained unchanged. This gives a decrease in the labour force of 4 000 persons. Coherence between the conceptsUnemployed + Employed = Labour force Labour force + Outside the labour force = Population |
Unemployment up in the USA
Unemployment in the USA increased from 8.1 per cent in April to 8.3 per cent in July. In the EU15, unemployment rose from 10.5 per cent to 10.6 per cent in the same period1. The unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage points from April to July in both Sweden and Denmark. The unemployment rate in July was 7.5 per cent in Sweden and 7.9 per cent in Denmark. The international 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 who are not registered as permanent residents or who are planning to stay for less than six months are not included in the employment figure in the LFS. If these people lose their job it does not count as a fall in employment or a rise in unemployment. In national accounts figures (NR), employed non-residents are included in the employment figure as long as they work in an establishment in Norway. If employment decreases in this group it will count as a fall in employment in NR. Statistics Norway publishes separate figures for all registered non-residents once a year. See short-term immigrants . |
Uncertain figuresThe purpose of making seasonal adjustments is to describe the development over the last year, corrected for seasonal variations. In order to reduce uncertainty, the published series are three-month moving averages of the seasonally-adjusted figures. However, uncertainty means that sampling errors must be considered when interpreting the figures from the LFS. We normally compare the latest non-overlapping three-month periods. An overview of sampling errors in the LFS can be found in “ About the statistics ”, chapter 5, section 3. The complete time series is re-estimated each month, and this may cause some adjustments of previously published figures. See Revisions for more information . Interviews that arrive late are included in the LFS the following month. This applies to the first two months in each quarter. 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