Unemployment among immigrants, 1st quarter 1999:

Four times higher unemployment among non-Western immigrants

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Unemployment among non-Western immigrants was fully 10.5 per cent at the end of February this year. By comparison, the unemployment rate for the entire population was 2.6 per cent. Unemployment among all first-generation immigrants was 7.2 per cent.

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At the end of February this year, 8,866 first-generation immigrants were registered as unemployed. Because of changes made this year in the definition of persons registered as completely jobless, the figure for immigrants is not completely certain. Calculations based on the Directorate of Labour's correction of the break in the time series indicate that about 950 fewer persons were registered as completely unemployed in first quarter 1999 compared to the same quarter the year before.

The registered unemployment rate for male immigrants was 7.9 per cent in February this year, while the registered unemployment rate for immigrant women was 6.3 per cent. The unemployment rate was highest for both male and female immigrants from Africa and Eastern Europe.

2,500 fewer immigrants in job programmes
The number of immigrants covered by ordinary labour market schemes (job programmes) fell by all of 2,508 persons from February 1998 to 1999. At the end of February this year, 3,226 immigrants were enrolled in public sector job creation programmes. They accounted for 30 per cent of all persons covered by such schemes.

New Statistics
Unemployment among immigrants, first quarter 1999.
The statistics are published four times annually in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics. For more information contact: Jorn.Ivar.Hamre@ssb.no, tel. +47 21 09 49 29 or Bjorn.Mathisen@ssb.no, tel. +47 21 09 48 89.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 19, 1999