Chapter 5 HOW DO REFUGEES ACCESS THE NORWEGIAN LABOUR MARKET? * Trends in refugee employment in Europe are consistent with those observed in Norway. By the end of the fourth quarter 2018, 51 per cent of refugees in Norway were employed, compared to around 64 per cent among immigrants in general and 73 per cent in the population as a whole. These overall figures do, however, conceal big differences. Employment rates vary by factors such as sex, age, education level, years of residence and language proficiency (as well as combinations of these). It takes time for refugees to access the labour market, and as Figure 25 shows, employment is almost three times higher among those with the longest period of stay (20+ years) compared to the groups that have recently arrived (0-4 years). Refugees who have been in Norway for a long period of time (e.g. from Sri Lanka and Myanmar) have employment rates almost at the same level as the general Norwegian population. Among those who have arrived relatively recently in Norway (e.g. Syrians), many are still enrolled in mandatory introductory programmes and are thus not yet available for the labour market.69 Figure 25 | Employment rate by immigration background (15-66 years), 4th quarter 2018 (in %) Total population Immigrants Refugee background Refugee background: 20 + years residence 10-19 years residence 7-9 years residence 4-6 years residence 0-4 years residence Sri Lanka Myanmar Afghanistan Iraq Somalia Syria 0 20 40 60 80 (Per cent) *Contributed by Statistics Norway. The views and opinions expressed are those of Statistics Norway and do not necessarily represent the views of UNHCR. UNHCR > GLOBAL TRENDS 2019 69 Throughout most of Europe, the Labour Force Survey (LFS), an interview-based survey, is used to measure the overall employment and unemployment rate. It is also used to measure how refugees and immigrants integrate into the European labour market. The LFS is, however, not an ideal tool to measure participation rates of smaller groups in the society as the sample size is often too small for detailed analysis. Immigrants, in particular, will also have a significant selective non-response. In Norway, in addition to the LFS, a combination of administrative registers is used to measure the employment and unemployment rates. Data from these registers open up for detailed analysis broken down by important variables such as sex, age, years of residence and country background. See https://www.ssb.no/en/arbeid-og-lonn/statistikker/innvregsys. For more information about Statistics Norway’s definition of persons with a refugee background, see: https://www.ssb.no/ en/befolkning/statistikker/flyktninger. 55