Registered unemployed among immigrants (discontinued in Statistics Norway), Q1 2012

The decrease mainly occurred among men, both within the immigrant group and the population as a whole, with a decline of 1.5 and 0.4 percentage points respectively. Among immigrant women and women in general, the unemployment rate declined marginally, by 0.1 percentage point. This tendency is due to a stronger fall in unemployment in the male dominated occupations within construction and manufacturing compared to the female dominated occupations in the public sector. Despite this tendency, men still have higher registered unemployment rates than women; 6.9 versus 6.6 per cent among immigrants and 2.4 versus 1.7 per cent in the rest of the population.

Strongest decrease among immigrants from Eastern EU countries

Immigrants from the EU countries in Eastern Europe had the strongest decrease in the registered unemployment rate of 2.6 percentage points from the 1st quarter of 2011 to the 1st quarter of 2012. The other immigrant groups had declines between 0.2 percentage points (Africa) and 1.0 percentage point (South and Central America).

Immigrants from Africa still had the highest level in the first quarter of 2012, at 13.2 per cent. This group was followed by immigrants from Asia, with an unemployment rate of 8.1 per cent, and those from the EU countries in Eastern Europe, with 7.6 per cent. Immigrants from the rest of Eastern Europe and South and Central America had rates slightly below this level at 6.9 and 6.7 per cent respectively.

As usual, there is a wide gap to the groups from the Nordic countries and Western Europe, which have considerably lower unemployment rates; 2.6 and 3.2 per cent respectively. The smallest immigrant group, those from North America and Oceania, had the lowest registered rate at 2.3 per cent.

The high level of unemployment among Africans is partly due to the dominance of refugees within this group. African immigrants have for several years had the highest registered unemployment rate irrespective of the economic cycles.

Increase among participants on labour market schemes

The number of immigrants on ordinary labour market schemes (job programmes) increased from

6 543 in February 2011 to 8 481 in February 2012. This increase does not, however, outweigh the decrease among the registered unemployed during this period when considering the rates of unemployed and participants on labour market schemes as a whole. There is still a decline among the immigrants. We can also observe the same tendency among non-immigrants, where the number of participants increased from 9 704 to 11 283.

Lower unemployment among Norwegian-born to immigrant parents than immigrants

Norwegian-born to immigrant parents is still a rather small group of unemployed. This group constituted 831 registered unemployed in February 2012. The majority within this group are aged 15-29 years, and the unemployment rate among them was 5.2 per cent, which was 1.6 percentage points higher than the corresponding age group in the majority population, but 2.6 percentage points below the immigrant group at the same age. There was a decline of about 0.5 percentage points within each of these three young population groups since February last year.

Tables:

• Table 1 Registered unemployed by immigrant background, region of birth and sex. In absolute figures and in per cent of the labour force. By the end of February 2011 and 2012
• Table 2 Participants on ordinary labour market schemes (job programmes), by immigrant background, region of birth and sex. Absolute numbers and in per cent of persons aged 15 to 74 years. By the end of February 2011 and 2012
• Table 3 Registered unemployed, by region of birth and time of residence in Norway. By the end of February 2011 and 2012. Absolute figures and in per cent of persons in total aged 15-74 years
• Table 4 Registered unemployed by immigrant background, region of birth and county of residence. Absolute numbers and in per cent of the labour force in each group. By the end of February 2011 and 2012
• Table 5 Participants on ordinary labour market schemes (job-programmes) by immigrant background, region of birth and county of residence. Absolute numbers and in per cent of persons aged 15 to 74 years in each group. By the end of February 2011 and 2012
• Table 6 Registered unemployed by sex, immigrant background, region of birth and age. Absolute numbers and in per cent of the labour force. By the end of February 2011 and 2012