Norway

1.Series

Title:

Labour Market Statistics.

Starting year:

1948.

2.Agency making the initial registrations of unemployed persons

Name of the agency:

District Employment Service (Aestat).

Type of agency:

Public service under a national authority.

Name of the national authority:

Directorate of Labour.

Location of the local offices making the registrations:

200 local offices make the main registrations. A national registration centre carries out some updating of registrations and some registrations in connection with vacancy statistics.

Type of services provided/administered by the agency:

Assisting job-seekers to find jobs;

Assisting employers to find workers;

Vocational guidance;

Job-related training;

Occupational rehabilitation measures;

Benefits for unemployed;

Other employment-related services.

Percentage of job-seekers seeking work through the agency:

75%.

3.The following information is registered about a person:

Name;

Sex;

Social security number (or similar identification number also used by other agencies);

Address of usual residence;

Date of birth;

Citizenship;

Nationality;

Educational/vocational attainment, with 8 categories distinguished. Links to ISCED have been established;

Type of work (occupation) of past job with an unspecified number of groups distinguished. Links to ISCO-88 have been established (unit groups level);

Type of work (occupation) of job sought, with an unspecified number of groups distinguished. Links to ISCO-88 have been established (unit groups level);

Previous registrations with the agency/service.

4.Criteria used for inclusion of a person in the registers (R) and/or the statistics of unemployed persons (S):

Being without work (the last 14 days before the counting day) (S);

Seeking work (R) and (S);

Availability for work (R) and (S);

Being resident in the country (S).

5.Criteria used for exclusion of a person from the registers (R) and/or the statistics of unemployed persons (S):

Death (R) and (S);

Taking up residency abroad (R) and (S);

Commencement of a (new) job (S);

Commencement of military service (S);

Participation in an employment promotion scheme, public works programme, etc. (S);

Studying or undergoing training (students and participants in training schemes are not counted as unemployed, but can still be job-seekers) (S);

Failure to send reporting card every 14 days to a national registration centre (R) and (S).

6.Definition of unemployed persons used for the statistics

The main criteria are seeking work, being without paid work and available for work.

Persons are regarded as job-seekers when a reporting card has been received/completed for the preceding two weeks or when they have been to the local employment service for registration. If they report that they had no work in the preceding two weeks they are counted as unemployed. If they had some work in the preceding two weeks they are counted as partly unemployed.

7.Updating of the registers

The registers are updated weekly.

8.Unemployment rates

Statistics from the registers are used to obtain unemployment rates.

The denominator of the unemployment rates is the labour force from the Labour Force Survey.

Definition of employed persons for this purpose:

Aged 16 to 74 years and performed work for pay or profit for at least one hour in the survey week.

9.Type of statistics of unemployed persons produced

Series 1:

Reference period:

Month.

Frequency of production:

Monthly.

Descriptive variables used:

Sex;

Age;

Educational level;

Occupation;

Geographic characteristics;

Duration of unemployment;

Other: recipient of unemployment benefit.

Form of publication:

On paper, for general audience;

On a website (www.aetat.no).

Agency responsible for publication:

Directorate of Labour.

Title and periodicity of the publication:

Månedsstatistikk (Monthly Statistics).

Series 2:

Reference period:

Year.

Frequency of production:

Yearly.

Descriptive variables used:

Sex;

Age;

Educational level;

Occupation;

Geographic characteristics;

Duration of unemployment;

Other: recipient of unemployment benefit.

Form of publication:

On paper, for general audience;

On a website (www.aetat.no).

Agency responsible for publication:

Directorate of Labour.

Title of the publication:

Historisk Statistikk, (Historical Statistics).

10.Methodological information about the statistics

Form of release:

On paper, for general audience;

On a website (www.aetat.no).

Agency responsible for the release:

Directorate of Labour, Planning and Analysis Division.

11.Comparisons with unemployment statistics from other sources

Comparisons have been made with unemployment statistics from the Labour Force Survey.

Frequency of the comparisons:

Occasionally.

Publication of the methodology/results of the comparisons:

These have been published in Notater, nr. 99/31 (Statistics Norway): "... Classification of registered unemployment and participants in labour market schemes in the Labour Force Survey" (in Norwegian only).

12.Major changes since the start of the statistics

There have been no major changes in legislation, capacity of the agency and/or administrative procedures which had a significant influence on the statistics.