The unemployment rate for immigrants in Oslo is twice as high as the national average

Aftenposten:

Norway's unemployment level is low and falling, but 22 percent of immigrants are unemployed according to calculations from Statistics Norway (SSB) for newspaper Dagens Næringsliv. The unemployment rate for immigrants in Oslo is 44 percent.

Of Norway's 60,500 unemployed, 13,100 are immigrants. In Oslo these figures are 9,800 unemployed, 4,300 of these are immigrants.

The new job and welfare management department NAV has its own training program for immigrants, and hopes to gain more financing for courses, trainee schemes and wage subsidies to firms who hire immigrants.

Steinar Danielsen, head of NAV Intro Oslo, believes the chances are better for support measures for improved immigrant employment when overall unemployment is low.

Minister of Labor and Social Inclusion Bjarne Håkon Hanssen said he would not lift the lid on a pending labor and inclusion report coming this autumn, and so would not comment on the matter now.

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