About 15 per cent in employment are immigrants

People Karl Johan Oslo population growthPeople on Karl Johans gate in Oslo. Photo Norway Today Media

Nearly 380 000 immigrants were employed in the 4th quarter of 2015. This group constituted 14.7 per cent of the total number of employed persons in Norway.

This share was almost the same as in the preceding year. The largest group was immigrants from the EU countries in the east, constituting almost 114 000 persons.

Immigrants had an employment rate of 60.3 per cent in the 4th quarter of 2015. In the rest of the population this rate was 67.2 per cent, i.e. a disparity of 6.9 percentage points. There are, however, large disparities among the immigrant groups. Immigrants from the EEA countries, who include large numbers of labour immigrants, have considerably higher rates than other immigrants. The employment rates among these groups in the 4th quarter of 2015 were as follows: 73.3 per cent (the Nordic countries), 68.8 per cent (EU countries in Eastern Europe) and 67.2 per cent (Western Europe). Next, we find immigrants from North America and Oceania and Eastern Europe outside the EU, with employment rates of about 62 per cent, while the group from Latin America lay slightly above 60 per cent. Asians, meanwhile, had a lower rate, at 53 per cent. As in earlier years, the African group had the lowest rate, at 40.7 per cent.

These disparities have been quite stable irrespective of economic cycles. Immigrants from Asia and Africa have larger shares of refugees with a shorter period of residence in Norway than other groups, and particularly the African immigrants. With a longer period residence, the employment level ascends within most of the immigrant groups, but the disparities among the groups do not level out. Even among those with 10 years or more of residence in Norway, African immigrants have the lowest employment rate, at 50 per cent, which is 10 percentage points below the average for immigrants.

Source: SSB / Norway Today