Norway’s state statistics bureau SSB (Statistics Norway) has reported that unemployment declined on a national basis in December to 4.4 percent. That’s down from 4.7 percent in September, and DNB Markets said it was “unexpected.”
DNB’s analysts had predicted that unemployment would remain steady at 4.7 percent but cautioned that the labour market remains weak. They tied the decline in unemployment to a decline in the overall size of the workforce,
“More people are disappearing from the job market completely,” Jeanette Strøm Fjøre of DNB Markets told news bureau NTB. She also cautioned that hiring activity has fallen in recent months,.
Erik Bruce, senior analyst at Nordea Markets, noted nonetheless that unemployment rates are now back at around the level they were in 2015, before the latest round of job cuts. Several economists have noted that Norway’s economy has bottomed out after the oil price collapse, and is now beginning to recover.
newsinenglish.no staff
