Unemployment is falling, but not everywhere. New data from the Norwegian labor market

The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) reported that in June, 58,100 people were unemployed. This corresponds to 1.9 percent of the labor force. At the same time, 24,200 people were registered as partially unemployed, and 11,100 as job seekers participating in activation measures. In total, NAV's registers listed 93,400 job seekers.

The decrease is slight. NAV's Director of Labour and Welfare, Hege Nilssen, stated that the trend over the past six months shows declining unemployment and continued strong demand for workers. Seasonally adjusted data indicate 61,358 fully unemployed. The previous month, there were 61,962.

In June, 44,600 job offers were posted on arbeidsplassen.no. After seasonal adjustment, this amounts to 1,900 offers per working day. NAV reports that the number of advertisements was at the level of June 2025, but slightly lower than the average for the last 12 months. Most offers were in the health, care, and nursing sector.

In most counties, unemployment has fallen. The largest decrease was recorded in Agder and Rogaland, after accounting for normal seasonal fluctuations. In Buskerud and Vestfold, there was a slight increase. In Rogaland, however, the number of fully unemployed was still 10 percent higher than in June 2025.

The highest unemployment was in Oslo, where 2.6 percent of the labor force was registered as fully unemployed. The lowest level was recorded in Troms, where the rate was 1.2 percent. By industry, the highest unemployment was in tourism and transport, where it reached 2.7 percent.

NAV also points to technical changes in the statistics. The office is replacing old IT systems and introducing new ones, which has caused interruptions in data comparability over the past year. According to NAV, figures adjusted for seasonality and interruptions still provide a basis for tracking changes over time.