Facts

There is currently a bigger modernization effort regarding the labour market statistics in Nav. As a result of the modernization, the statistical solutions that safeguard labour market statistics must be adapted and eventually re-established with data from new data processing systems.

April 2025: Break in the job seeker statistics. 

There is a break in the statistics for unemployed and job seekers with work related measures. With the new job seeker register there have been multiple changes to registration, and it seems to also be a change in how people respond in the new system.  

These changes started from the statistics for April 2025. It is too early to estimate the numerical effect of the changes, Nav will attempt this later. The changes result in greater uncertainty than usual, and at the same time it is difficult to interpret what the changes in unemployment figures mean.   

Conclusion: The situation in the labor market has not changed much from March to April. Although the figures may give the impression that the number of completely unemployed has decreased from the previous month, this is within the uncertainty of the figures for April. Therefore, it is uncertain whether the decrease in the figures is a real decrease. 

For more detailed information, please refer to chapter 5.3 in «om statistikken – arbeidssøkere».

March 2025: New "Job Seeker Register" and data cleaning

In March, several rounds of data cleaning have been carried out, and from Thursday, March 20, 2025, the new “Job Seeker Register” took over full responsibility for data on who is registered as job seekers at Nav.

Nav has assessed the impact of the changes on the statistics for March 2025 and finds virtually no effect on the number of registered unemployed, partially unemployed, and participants in labour market measures.