Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1990, published 77th ILC session (1990)

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Norway (Ratification: 1966)

1. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes the information on the employment and unemployment situation and trends supplied in the Government's clear and helpful report. It also takes into consideration information contained in the Government's report to the Fourth Conference of European Ministers of Labour (Copenhagen, October 1989), and in the annual OECD reports. The Government points out that the very marked increase in employment during 1986 and 1987 was due to both high output growth and the cut in normal working hours. The contractual weekly working hours were reduced from 40 to 37.5 with effect from January 1987. The weakening of economic activity during 1988 and the tighter economic policy led to a sharp slow-down in employment growth in 1988. Unemployment climbed to an unusually high level in Norwegian terms, with 108,000 unemployed or 5 per cent of the labour force in the first quarter of 1989, compared with a rate of 2.2 per cent noted by the Committee in its 1987 observation. Unemployment rose in the case of both women and men, and most markedly among young workers. The increase in unemployment has been strongest in the larger conurbations, especially in western Norway.

2. With a view to curbing the increase in unemployment, the Government has called for intensive use of labour market programmes. As indicated in the 1989 Government's report on Convention (No. 88) concerning the Employment Service, 1948, the Labour Market Administration's overall priority is "to get people back to work". The deterioration of labour market conditions has led the Government to introduce or to propose in 1989 various measures ranging from a reinforcement of already existing labour market programmes - with emphasis on skills training - to measures like speeding up public investments in roads, public buildings, etc., or concerning incomes policy legislation.

3. The Committee trusts that in its next report the Government will make reference to the results, in terms of job creation, of the programmes mentioned above and will also describe the overall and sectoral development policies, with particular reference to prices, incomes and wages and other measures taken with a view to ensuring that there is work for all who are available and seeking work (see report form under Article 1 of the Convention). It hopes that the Government will pursue and intensify its efforts to obtain again the positive results achieved in the recent past in promoting full employment, in consultation and co-operation with representatives of the persons affected by the measures to be taken, as required by the Convention.