Observation (CEACR) - adoptée 1992, publiée 79ème session CIT (1992)

1. The Committee notes the Government's report for the period ending June 1990, in which it describes worrying developments in the employment situation. According to the Government, the 3.5 per cent drop in employment recorded in 1989 is the sharpest experienced by the country since 1945. The contraction of the labour market continued in 1990 at a slower rate of 0.9 per cent. The unemployment rate, which was 3.2 per cent in 1988, reached 4.9 per cent in 1989 and 5.2 per cent in 1990. According to OECD data, in the absence of a recovery in employment growth, the unemployment rate stabilised in 1991 at this unusually high level in Norwegian terms.

2. The Government states that, in order to deal with this high and growing rate of unemployment, the scope of various labour market policy measures has been considerably extended. The total number of those benefiting from these measures, which has increased very markedly, represented 2.2 per cent of the active population in the first half of 1990, compared with 0.4 per cent in 1988. Emphasis has been placed on training measures, particularly for young persons and workers threatened by long-term unemployment. In this connection, the Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its report on Convention No. 142 Human Resources Development, 1975 for the period ending 30 June 1991. The existing programmes have been supplemented since 1989 by a special public employment scheme.

3. The Committee notes this information with interest. It hopes that the Government will continue to supply detailed information on the various labour market policy programmes and measures and that it will indicate the results achieved. Further to its previous comments, and in relation to the worrying employment situation, the Committee trusts that the Government's next report will also contain the information required by the report form on the measures taken, within the framework of a coordinated economic and social policy, to promote full, productive and freely chosen employment, as a major goal. It would be grateful if the Government would indicate in particular the manner in which the measures taken in fields such as monetary and budgetary policies, prices, incomes and wages policies and investment policy contribute to promoting employment objectives. The Committee also requests the Government to indicate the manner in which representatives of the persons affected, and in particular representatives of employers and workers, are consulted concerning employment policies in accordance with Article 3 of the Convention.