Prime Minister Erna Solberg believes that the Labour leader Jonas Gahr Støre is exaggerating unemployment by using misleading numbers.
In a parliamentary question on Wednesday Støre showed to figures from Statistic Institute Norway that 135,000 people are unemployed, causing Solberg to react in an interview with the newspaper Dagbladet.
– Labour is high on rhetoric. It is quite noticeable that they choose to use numbers that no professional bodies are using. Seasonally adjusted LFS unemployment is at 130,000 unemployed, ie 4.6 percent. It is the same unemployment rate as in November last year said Solberg, who has received much criticism from the Labour Party for not doing enough to bring down unemployment.
She emphasizes that the figure of 135,000 was found in the raw material, but had not been seasonally adjusted.
– So Ap choose to make the numbers higher to match their rhetoric about unemployment increases. Registered unemployment is at 3.1 percent, says Solberg.
Labour leader Jonas Gahr Støre denies that he has magnified the unemployment figures.
– This is a clear derailment. I have not used any percentage points. According to Statistics Norway the number of unemployed are now 135 000 people. This is the highest figure they have ever quoted. So we may well enter into a discussion about decimals, but my question in Question Time was not about that but about the young, Støre said.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
