Rising unemployment
From January to April, the unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage points. 3.7 per cent of the labor force was unemployed in April.
Adjusted for seasonal variations, the Labor Force Survey (LFS) shows that unemployment rose by 7 000 people from January (average December – February) to April (average March – May). The increase is equally distributed between men and women.
In comparison, seasonally-adjusted figures for those registered unemployed with the Labor and Welfare Organization (NAV) rose by 2 000. These figures have also been adjusted for seasonal variations.
Stable employment
The employment kept stable from January to April. Adjusted for seasonal variations, there was a decrease in employment of 4 000 persons. This is within the error margin of the LFS.
The labor force is the sum of employed and unemployed between 16-74 years of age. From January to April the employment fell by 4 000, while there was an increase in unemployment of 7 000. This gives an increase in the labor force of 3 000 people.
The coherence between the concepts
Unemployed + Employed = Labor force
Labor force + Outside the labor force = Population
Small changes in Europe
The unemployment rate in EU-15 was 10.0 per cent in April, up 0.1 percentage points from January. In Germany, unemployment fell from 7.4 to 7.1 per cent. USA saw an increase of 0.2 per cent from January to April, ending at 9.9 per cent. All figures refer to seasonally-adjusted data from Eurostat.
Employment and unemployment figures include permanent residents
The 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.
Source: Statistics Norway
