An additional 8,700 people in Norway were registered last month as without work and using state welfare agency NAV to help them find jobs. That put the unemployment rate at 2.9 percent in October, still low but slightly rising.
NAV director Hans Christian Holte said most of those without work are in the building trades, a reflection of how a weak real estate market has halted several construction projects in both the residential and commercial sectors. Oslo registered higher jobless numbers in all of its districts, while unemployment also rose in all Norwegian counties except Nordland.
Holte also said the rise in numbers of people looking for work also reflects the thousands of Ukrainians fleeing war in their homeland and seeking asylum in Norway. “More and more Ukrainians are registering themselves with NAV in their search for work,” he stated in a press release on Friday.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
