Labour market information: Norway

The population of Norway in the first quarter of 2022 was 5 425 270.

In Norway, two units of measurement are used for the unemployed. NAV (the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Authority) uses a standard that states that the number of fully unemployed includes everyone who applies for income-generating work at NAV and has been without income-generating work for the past 2 weeks and is available for the work applied for. Statistics Norway (SSB) measures unemployment as a percentage of the workforce (aged between 15 and 74). The workforce (January 2022) comprises 4 060 606 people. The employment rate was 69.3 per cent.

Developments in the Norwegian labour market can be considered as being both positive and at the same time worrying. At the time of writing (April 2022), Norway has a record low unemployment rate (2 % (NAV figure) against 3.2 % if we take the entire workforce into account). There has not been as low an unemployment rate as this since before the financial crisis in 2008. At the same time, the number of vacancies is at a record high. In other words, competition for labour is great, and there is also a significant mismatch between the skills in demand and the skills available for recruitment. In some regions, there are enough jobs to potentially reduce unemployment to zero and still have a surplus of vacancies, subject to a match between the skills required and those offered.

Changes in working life, with employers struggling to find exactly the skills they need, mean that there is, among other things, a greater need for specialised staff in the company, both among existing employees and new recruits. However, many companies do not hire if they do not get applicants with the required skills. It is therefore very important that jobseekers understand what the company is asking for in its job advertisement if they are considering applying. This is perhaps especially important for applications from outside Norway, as the NCO has received feedback that a number of employers experience receiving a large number of completely irrelevant applications.

The lack of availability of the right skills continues to increase, and is starting to become critically high for more and more companies. This is shown by the recent Skills Barometer of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) from 2021. Two out of three NHO companies state that they have an unfulfilled need for skills. One such example is the need for 12 000 new employees with vocational school skills (high-level), 10 000 new employees with engineering and technical skills and 17 000 employees with a vocational education.

The NHO’s barometer represents the needs of the organisation’s member companies, and should therefore not be regarded as presenting national labour market statistics. However, as all the relevant surveys show that there are far more companies in the private sector than in the public sector that are positive about recruiting from other countries, and are thus potential users of EURES services, use of the barometer is very relevant in the context of the national analysis. It would appear that companies in Northern Norway and North Western Norway have the most unfulfilled needs for skills. Using the old county division, Nordland, Troms and Møre og Romsdal are the three counties that state that they have the highest level of unfulfilled needs for skills, all with a proportion of over 70 %. These are followed, with almost an equally high proportion, by Oslo, Finnmark, Vestfold and Sogn og Fjordane, where around 2 out of 3 companies indicate unfulfilled needs for skills. At the other end of the scale we find Telemark, Hedmark and Buskerud, where 6 out of 10 companies indicate that they have unfulfilled needs for skills. However, compared with previously, there are fewer geographical differences than industry differences in relation to the need for skills. The mismatch between supply and demand in the Norwegian labour market is also clear in ELA’s report on labour shortages and surpluses for 2021.

If we analyse future industrial establishments in Norway (both those planned and those in the course of being established), we see a clear orientation towards green industries. Examples of this are the establishment of several battery factories, factories for carbon capture and production of offshore wind turbines. The population and skills structure in Norway indicates that not only will it be impossible to cover new establishments’ recruitment needs locally, it will also be impossible to cover them nationally; in this context, cooperation and EURES services will be important factors for success.

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Among the industries with a need to recruit are some of the industries found in previous years in this situation: nursing and healthcare, engineering and ICT, accommodation and catering, tourism and transport, building and construction, retail and sales, the services industry and other related work. Education is also high on the list of areas with recruitment challenges.

Since we cooperate in the EURES network, we are concerned about ensuring ethical recruitment, especially with regard to the health sector, where the deficit is, in some areas, large throughout the EU/EEA area.

As mentioned, unemployment is at a record low in Norway, so talking about a real surplus of labour will give a skewed picture. At the beginning of the year, unemployment is linked to the industry background, based largely on the fact that industries have not started hiring. The picture will change during the first quarter. There may also be other structural reasons why the unemployed came up in the survey. At the beginning of the year, for example, there are unemployed persons with a background in tourism and transport, the services industry and other related work, office work, management and brokering and consultancy. Yet in both tourism and the services industry, and especially the restaurants and bars sector, the shortage of labour is so significant that many employers have not been able to open fully and go back to previous opening hours. It is thus expected that many of those who were registered as unemployed at the beginning of the year will be able to get jobs in those industries that have an urgent deficit and need to recruit to return to the same level of activity and with the same opening hours as before the pandemic. So the group of potentially outgoing jobseekers will probably mainly consist of people who have a specific desire to work in another country; it is not a lack of work in Norway that will be the dominant triggering factor.

Unemployment in Norway in the first quarter of 2022 is at a record low (2 % according to NAV), with very minor variations between the regions. The regions with the highest unemployment have a rate of 2.5 %. In the first quarter of 2022, the situation is that there are more regions in the country that have more job vacancies than unemployed people. The composition, both in terms of the educational background of the unemployed and the working life requirements for skills, appears in the overview of the professional affiliation of the unemployed and in the overview of those industries in which positions are advertised.

The population of Oslo and Viken in the first quarter of 2022 was 1 969 057.

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Ranking by industries and sectors that advertise the most positions in the first quarter of 2022:

Among those who are registered as unemployed, the ranking with regard to professional background is as follows:

Unemployment in Norway in the first quarter of 2022 is at a record low (2 % according to NAV), with very minor variations between the regions. The regions with the highest unemployment have a rate of 2.5 %. In the first quarter of 2022, the situation is that there are more regions in the country that have more job vacancies than unemployed people. The composition, both in terms of the educational background of the unemployed and the working life requirements for skills, appears in the overview of the professional affiliation of the unemployed and in the overview of those industries in which positions are advertised.

The population of Innlandet in the first quarter of 2022 was 371 253

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Ranking by industries and sectors that advertise the most positions during the first quarter of 2022

Among those who are registered as unemployed, the ranking with regard to professional background is as follows:

Unemployment in Norway in the first quarter of 2022 is at a record low (2% according to NAV), with very minor variations between the regions. The regions with the highest unemployment have a rate of 2.5 %. In the first quarter of 2022, the situation is that there are more regions in the country that have more job vacancies than unemployed people. The composition, both in terms of the educational background of the unemployed and the working life requirements for skills, appears in the overview of the professional affiliation of the unemployed and in the overview of those industries in which positions are advertised. Some large establishments are expected to be setting up in Agder, which will lead to a significantly increased need for recruitment in the years to come.

The population of Agder and Sør-Østlandet in the first quarter of 2022 was 311 134.

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Ranking by industries and sectors that advertise the most positions in the first quarter of 2022:

Among those who are registered as unemployed, the ranking with regard to professional background is as follows:

Unemployment in Norway in the first quarter of 2022 is at a record low (2 % according to NAV), with very minor variations between the regions. The regions with the highest unemployment have a rate of 2.5 %. In the first quarter of 2022, the situation is that there are more regions in the country that have more job vacancies than unemployed people. The composition, both in terms of the educational background of the unemployed and the working life requirements for skills, appears in the overview of the professional affiliation of the unemployed and in the overview of those industries in which positions are advertised.

The population of Western Norway in the first quarter of 2022 was 641 292.

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Ranking by industries and sectors that advertise the most positions in the first quarter of 2022:

Among those who are registered as unemployed, the ranking with regard to professional background is as follows:

Unemployment in Norway in the first quarter of 2022 is at a record low (2 % according to NAV), with very minor variations between the regions. The regions with the highest unemployment have a rate of 2.5 %. In the first quarter of 2022, the situation is that there are more regions in the country that have more job vacancies than unemployed people. The composition, both in terms of the educational background of the unemployed and the working life requirements for skills, appears in the overview of the professional affiliation of the unemployed and in the overview of those industries in which positions are advertised.

The population of Trøndelag in the first quarter of 2022 was 474 131.

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Ranking by industries and sectors that advertise the most positions in the first quarter of 2022:

Among those who are registered as unemployed, the ranking with regard to professional background is as follows:

Unemployment in Norway in the first quarter of 2022 was at a record low (2 % according to NAV), with very minor variations between the regions. The regions with the highest unemployment have a rate of 2.5 %. In the first quarter of 2022, the situation is that there are more regions in the country that have more job vacancies than unemployed people. The composition, both in terms of the educational background of the unemployed and the working life requirements for skills, is shown in the overview of the professional affiliation of the unemployed and in which positions are advertised. Northern Norway is in a special situation as it is the least populous geographical area in the country, while at the same time its geographical scope is very large. Major establishments are being set up in the region. There are also large projects that include the development of infrastructure that will be continued or started in the years to come. This will create a large need for recruitment within a number of sectors and industries.

The population of Northern Norway in the first quarter of 2022 was 240 190.

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Ranking by industries and sectors that advertise the most positions in the first quarter of 2022:

Among those who are registered as unemployed, the ranking with regard to professional background is as follows: