SSB: Many immigrants in Norway lost their job due to the corona pandemic

Many immigrants lost their jobs last year due to the fact that they work in occupations that were hard hit by the corona measures.

The Norwegian immigrant population is overrepresented in the industries that were most affected by the corona measures. This includes jobs in restaurants and hotels, drivers, and those who work in cleaning, among others.

In its new report on immigrants, Statistics Norway (SSB) looked at the number of employed and occupational status in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared with the fourth quarter last year.

Young people and immigrants affected

Among immigrants and Norwegian-born workers with immigrant parents, 29% and 30.7%, respectively, worked in the most corona-exposed industries in the last quarter of 2019. Among the general population, the proportion was 13%.

According to the SSB, that is undoubtedly a contributing factor to a larger proportion of non-employed workers in these population groups in 2020 – compared to the rest of the population.

At the same time, people in their twenties are the ones who are most affected – as is the case the overall population. 

Low education

Most of those with low education were without a job at the end of 2020. Both among immigrants and Norwegians with immigrant parents, a larger proportion only have primary school education.

In this context, education affects employment in that those who only have primary school education are more strongly represented in the industries that have been most affected by the corona measures, researcher Bjørn Olsen, who is behind the SSB report, notes.

According to the SSB, there is also a big difference related to the geographical background of different immigrant groups. 

In the last quarter of last year, 14.4% of African immigrants were without a job, while 13% and 12.5% of immigrants from Eastern Europe and Asia were without a job, respectively. The proportion of immigrants from Nordic countries and Western Europe that didn’t have a job was much lower. 

Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayFinance

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