OSLO: Adjusted for seasonal variations, the unemployment rate was 4.8 percent in January, according to figures released by Statistic Norway (SSB) on Wednesday. The figure corresponds with roughly 134,000 people. SSB’s labour force survey has shown a steady increase in unemployment since May 2014, when it stood at just 3.2 percent. The figures show that unemployment rose by 5,000 people from October 2015.
“The change is within the margin of error, but still in line with the trend since May 2014,” SSB wrote. It was expected that the unemployment level would remain at about the same level as in the previous survey. Along with the new figures, SSB also revised its December unemployment rate from 4.5 to 4.6 percent. The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) has its own unemployment figures and they too showed the same trend as the SSB results.
With the increase, unemployment in Norway is now more in line with other countries. 4.3 percent are without a job in Germany, 4.9 percent in the US, 7.0 percent in Sweden and 8.9 percent in the EU. Erik Bruce, a chief analyst at Nordea Markets, said that although unemployment was higher than expected, SSB’s labour force survey results are not always completely accurate.
“But today’s numbers fit well into a picture in which unemployment is gradually rising and employment has stagnated. The previous figures that showed a slight decline in unemployment now appear to be somewhat misleading for the underlying development,” he said in a written statement.
Bruce said that the SSB figures indicate that unemployment is still on a rising trend and that Norges Bank is too optimistic in its estimate of an average unemployment rate of 4.6 percent this year.
“This substantiates the impression that we have a weakening of the labour market with rising unemployment and stagnating employment,” senior economist Kyrre Aamdal from DNB Markets told E24. Bruce added that if there are more confirmations of the labour market’s deterioration, there will likely be another rate cut from Norges Bank.
