More signs have emerged that Norway’s economy has recovered quickly after the worst of the Corona pandemic. Unemployment numbers for August show the jobless rate falling even lower than the central bank’s optimistic outlook.
There were 11,500 fewer people in Norway who were totally out of work last month than in July. A total of 75,800 people were registered by state welfare agency NAV as unemployed at the end of August, resulting in an unemployment rate of just 2.7 percent.
That’s down from 3.1 percent at the end of July. The central bank, Norges Bank, had expected 2.9 percent, so the jobless numbers were much better than expected.
Another 64,400 were registered as partially unemployed and job hunters taking part in NAV programs to find new work. Increasing numbers have been able to return to jobs that temporarily disappeared during the Corona shutdowns, with only 1.1 percent of the workforce still laid off.
newsinenglish.no staff
