Norway's unemployment rises to record 15.4% of work force


Reuters | Oslo | Updated: 07-04-2020 18:18 IST | Created: 07-04-2020 17:55 IST
Norway's unemployment rises to record 15.4% of work force
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  • Country:
  • Norway

Norway's rate of unemployment rose to 15.4% on Tuesday, the Labour and Welfare Agency (NAV) said, the highest level on record, up from 14.7% on March 31, as the economy ground to a halt amid efforts to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Norwegian government announced last month's emergency shutdowns of many public and private institutions, including schools and kindergartens, sending the economy into a tailspin and triggering hundreds of thousands of layoffs. "Unemployment is highest in the tourism and transport sector, with 26.9% of that workforce registered as fully unemployed," NAV said in a statement.

The number of registered full-time unemployed, not taking those partially unemployed or on job training into account, dropped to 10.4% from 10.7% a week earlier. The drop is due to some 10,000 individuals who recently became unemployed and who have now reported to NAV that they had worked somewhat over the past week. They were thus reclassified as partially unemployed.

Although many job cuts were classified as temporary, such as restaurants and airlines expecting to bring back employees when restrictions are eventually lifted, economists have warned that many firms may in fact struggle to recover. A major oil and gas producer, Norway is also suffering from a crash in the price of crude, its main export, and this industry has also announced layoffs.

The government will announce later on Tuesday whether it will modify its restrictions, currently in place until April 13.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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