Registered unemployed among immigrants (discontinued in Statistics Norway), Q4 2012

Within the immigrant group, the decrease continues to be among the men only, who had a decline of 0.2 percentage points since November 2011. Among female immigrants, the unemployment rate increased slightly, by 0.1 percentage point. In the rest of the population, men and women had a decline of 0.2 and 0.1 percentage points respectively.

The registered unemployment rate in the 4th quarter of 2012 was 5.7 per cent among male immigrants and 6.4 per cent among female immigrants. In the rest of the population, the rates were 1.9 and 1.5 per cent respectively.  

African immigrants continue to have highest unemployment

There were no considerable changes in the registered unemployment rate within any of the immigrant groups. Immigrants from South and Central-America had the strongest fall, of 0.3 percentage points, while immigrants from the Nordic countries had an increase of 0.2 percentage points.

Immigrants from Africa still had the highest unemployment level, at 12.5 per cent, followed by immigrants fromAsiaat 7.6 per cent. The unemployment rate among immigrants from both Latin America and Eastern Europe within the EU was on a par with the overall average for immigrants, i.e. around 6 per cent, while the corresponding rate for immigrants fromEastern Europeoutside the EU was 6.4 per cent. The remaining groups had considerably lower rates, as is normally the case. Immigrants from the Nordic countries and North America and Oceania both had unemployment rates of 2.5 per cent and forWestern Europethe figure was 2.7 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.

Small decrease among participants on labour market schemes

Measured as a percentage of the immigrant population aged 15-74 years, the rate of participants on  ordinary labour market schemes (job programmes) decreased slightly from 1.7 per cent in the 4th quarter of 2011 to 1.6 per cent in the 4th quarter of2012. Inthe remaining population, this rate was stable at 0.3 per cent. Immigrants from Africa andAsiahad the highest participation rates at 3.3 and 2.2 per cent respectively.

A total of 8 449 immigrants were participants on labour market schemes. In total, 18 500 people participated in the 4th quarter of 2012. Immigrants therefore constituted ca. 46 per cent of the total participant group.

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 about 800 registered unemployed in November 2012. The majority in this group are aged 15-29 years, and the unemployment rate among them was 4.7 per cent, which was 2.3 percentage points below the immigrant group at the same age (at 7.0 per cent) and 1.8 percentage points higher than the corresponding age group in the rest of the population (at 2.9 per cent). Among immigrants at this age, the unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points and among Norwegian-born to immigrant parents there was a small increase of 0.1 percentage points. In the rest of the population between 15 and 29 years of age, the unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage points.