Norway's job vacancies down by 10 pct in Q4 2015

The number of job vacancies in Norway decreased by 10 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015 from the same period of the year before, the country's statistics bureau said on Wednesday.

There were 47,300 job vacancies in the last quarter of 2015, 5,400 fewer than the same quarter the previous year, according to the latest report on job vacancies published by Statistics Norway.

In line with the decrease in the number of job vacancies, the job vacancy rate decreased from 2.0 percent in the 4th quarter of 2014 to 1.6 percent in the same quarter of 2015, the bureau said.

In manufacturing, the number of job vacancies decreased by 700 from the fourth quarter of 2014 to the same quarter of 2015, corresponding to a decrease of 29 percent.

In mining and quarrying, an industry dominated by the production of oil and gas, the number of job vacancies decreased by 78 percent, according to the report.

There has been a decrease in the mining and quarrying industry over the past three years, from 2,000 job vacancies in the fourth quarter of 2012 to only 200 in the same quarter of 2015.

The number of job vacancies in domestic trade was 5,400 in the fourth quarter of 2015, representing an increase of 1,300, or 33 percent, from the same quarter the previous year.

In public administration, the number of job vacancies was 3,700, representing an increase of 1,000 from the fourth quarter of 2014. Endit