Registered unemployed among immigrants (discontinued in Statistics Norway), Q2 2012

Within the immigrant group, the decrease only occurred among men, who had a decline of 0.9 percentage points since May 2011. Immigrants from the EU countries in Eastern Europe contributed mainly to the decrease. This is due to the fall in unemployment in the occupations within the construction industry. Among female immigrants, the unemployment rate slightly increased by 0.1 percentage points. In the rest of the population, men and women had a decline of 0.2 percentage points each.

The registered unemployment rate in the 2nd quarter this year was 5.8 per cent among male immigrants and 6.3 per cent among female immigrants. In the rest of the population, the rates were 2.0 and 1.5 per cent respectively.

Strongest decrease among immigrants from eastern EU countries

Immigrants from the EU countries in Eastern Europe still had the strongest fall in the registered unemployment rate from the 2nd quarter of 2011 to the 2nd quarter of 2012.In this group, the unemployment decreased by 1.2 percentage points, while immigrants from Africa and Latin America had small increases of 0.2 and 0.1 percentage points respectively.

Immigrants from Africa still had the highest unemployment level, at 12.4 per cent, followed by immigrants from Asia, with an unemployment rate of 7.7 per cent. Three of the other immigrant groups had rates slightly above 6 per cent; immigrants from Latin America and Eastern Europe, both inside and outside the EU.

As usual, there is a wide gap to the groups from the Nordic countries and Western Europe, which have considerably lower unemployment rates; 2.3 and 2.7 per cent respectively. The smallest immigrant group, those from North America and Oceania, had the lowest registered rate at 2.1 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

7 397 in May 2011 to 8 353 in May 2012. This increase of 956 participants did not, however, enhance the participation rate among immigrants, which was unchanged at 1.6 per cent. Among non-immigrants, the number of participants increased by 437, and the participation rate, at 0.3 per cent, was also unchanged.

Immigrants from Asia and Africa constituted the largest participation groups, with rates at 2.2 and 3.6 per cent respectively. These two groups counted 5 400 participants, which constituted 64 per cent of the immigrant participants.

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 802 registered unemployed in May 2012. The majority within this group are aged 15-29 years, and the unemployment rate among them was 4.9 per cent, which was 1.8 percentage points higher than the corresponding age group in the majority population, but 2.1 percentage points below the immigrant group at the same age. There were only marginal changes within these young population groups since May 2011; an increase of 0.1 percentage point among immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents and a decline of 0.1 percentage point within the majority.

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 May 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 the population aged 15 to 74 years. By the end of May 2011 and 2012
• Table 3 Registered unemployed, by region of birth and time of residence in Norway. By the end of May 2011 and 2012. Absolute figures and in per cent of the population aged 15-74 years in each group
• 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 May 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 the population aged 15 to 74 years in each group. By the end of May 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 May 2011 and 2012
• Table 7 Unemployed persons not registered as resident, by region of birth and sex. By the end of May 2011 and 2012
• Table 8 Unemployed persons not registered as resident, by region of birth and age. By the end of May 2011 and 2012