Many young Norwegians have poor prospects

Uncertain future without education, training, or work

Photo: Vidar Ruud/NTB
NAV administers a third of the national budget through schemes such as unemployment benefit, work assessment allowance, sickness benefit, pensions, child benefit and cash-for-care benefit.

NTB
New figures from Statistics Norway show that 11.2% of Norwegians younger than 30 were out of work or fell outside of educational and work-oriented measures last year.

After an annual decline in the proportion of young people in this group since 2015, the trend has now been broken. According to preliminary figures from Statistics Norway, just over 114,000 people age 15 to 29 were in this disadvantaged group at the end of the fourth quarter last year.

This number increased by 0.7 percentage points between 2019 and 2020. The increase is partly because of a decrease in the employment figures by 1.5 percentage points and an increase in the share of registered unemployed of 0.9 percentage points.

“This development in the labor market can be seen in connection with the pandemic and has been stronger for young people than for the rest of the population,” said Tonje Køber from Statistics Norway.

In comparison, the employment rate for people age 30 and older decreased by 1 percentage point, while unemployment increased by 0.6 percentage points.

Young people with primary school as the highest completed level of education generally make up the largest proportion of the disadvantaged, although the increase there was less than in previous years.

Translated by Lori Ann Reinhall

This article originally appeared in the Sept. 3, 2021, issue of The Norwegian American. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.