Norway’s jobless rate drops further in Q3

Norway’s LFS jobless rate dropped further towards a consensus estimate of unchanged. Employment recently showed signs of rebound; however, this was reversed with the figures released today. LFS unemployment came in at 4.1 percent in August, as compared with consensus expectations of 4.2 percent. Unemployment is now 0.2 percentage points lower than in May. Meanwhile, employment fell 1000 people from July to August and as much from the previous three-month period.

Thus employment is virtually unchanged from the second quarter and is marginally up from the first quarter. Over time, LFS has shown a slightly weaker job market than the registered jobless rate and employment figures from the national accounts. However, both registered unemployment and LFS-unemployment give the impression that jobless rate has passed the peak and that the labor market is improving gradually. The figures released today do not alter the central bank’s assessment of the labor market. The Norges Bank expects jobless rate to decline further in the future.

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