Still cause for concern in oil industry

Edvard Grieg FieldEdvard Grieg Field.Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB scanpix

70% of the oil industry’s unemployed have been out of work for over six months. So even if unemployment drops, it is cause for concern.

‘The decline may be levelling out, but the crisis in the oil industry isn’t over, and one thing that worries us in particular is the high proportion of long-term unemployed,’ said Lise Lyngsnes Randeberg, president of Tekna, the trade union for those with a high education in science and technology, to Dagens Næringsliv.

Tekna’s new oil survey among their members in the oil and gas industry shows that there are fewer unemployed today than there were a year ago.

94% are in work, compared to 90% at this time last year. The percentage of unemployed workers has fallen by 1.3%, from 5.6% in May last year, to 4.3% this year.

‘70% out of work for over six months is a high figure, meaning that the labour market is still difficult. The pace of getting people into jobs mustn’t be slowed down. We are pleased, therefore, that the government has proposed 500 new job opportunities in their revised budget,’ said Lyngsnes Randeberg.

Approximately 50,000 Norwegian jobs were lost in the oil sector during the downturn, but the tide appears to have turned, if slowly.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today