Business in Norway

Almost 31 per cent of Norway's total area is productive land, ie cultivated land, which represents 3.6 per cent, and productive forest, which represents 27 per cent.

The reason for the high material standard is therefore that the country has been decisively incorporated into the industrialization process that has been going on for the last 100–200 years in all western countries.

In this process, natural benefits are utilized, such as energy access, location relative to markets and more. Extensive trade relations and other contacts with other countries have played a crucial role in the development.

Later, the discoveries of oil and gas in Norwegian areas have generated large revenues; in 2013, the oil business accounted for 21 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). In comparison, public administration accounted for 16 per cent. The Norwegian GDP is about NOK 3 billion.

The labor

According to COUNTRYAAH, Norway was, like the other countries in Europe, hit by mass unemployment in the interwar period, with a peak in 1933, when ¹/₃ of the unionized workforce was jobless.

During the post- World War II reconstruction, broad political consensus on full employment was a key objective of economic policy, and this line was maintained even after the international boom in the 1960s was replaced by stagnation in the second half of the 1970s.

The oil industry in the North Sea created many new jobs in Norway, also in traditionally exposed industries such as the engineering industry, and together with an active labor market policy, this contributed to the unemployment rate in Norway during the 1970s being significantly lower than in other industrialized countries.

From the early 1970s until the recession of 1983/84, unemployment was below 2 per cent of the labor force.

Since the beginning of the 1980s, globalization of the economy has led Norway to be more closely linked to the trends in the world economy, and unemployment now reflects the fluctuations internationally to a greater extent.

In the first half of the 1980s, unemployment rose to a peak year in 1984, when 66,597, corresponding to 3.2 per cent, were fully unemployed. Unemployment then dropped to 1.5 per cent in 1987.

Against the background of the problems in the Norwegian and international economy, a new and more serious increase in unemployment began from 1987–88. In the peak year 1993, 118 147 were completely unemployed. This was equivalent to 6 per cent of the workforce.

From 1993, unemployment dropped sharply to 55 974, corresponding to 2.4 per cent, fully unemployed in 1998, and then increased again to 92 631, ie 3.9 per cent, fully unemployed in 2003.

The Norwegian economy entered a new upswing in mid-2003, and from the turn of the year 2003/04, registered unemployment declined again. In January 2006, 78 600 fully unemployed persons were registered, ie 3.3 per cent.

In April 2014, the proportion of unemployed was the same as in 2006. This amounts to 90,000 people.

Professional participation in Norway is very high in an international context. In 2013, the number of employed persons was 2.7 million. This corresponds to about 50 per cent of the population. 74 percent of men between the ages of 15 and 74 are in the workforce. The same goes for 68 percent of women.

Employment growth was particularly strong among women and labor participation among women has since remained high. Norway also has a significant share of part-time employees, although the proportion has been declining in recent years. Today, 40 percent of all women work part-time. In 1980 the proportion was 53 per cent. About 10 percent of all men work less than 36 hours a week. It has long remained stable.

Labor Policies

One of the most important labor market initiatives is the State Employment Service, which sorts under the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. NAV was established on July 1, 2006. This entailed a merger between the National Insurance Administration and the labor market agency Aetat and over time the establishment of local labor and welfare offices.

In collaboration with all the country's municipalities, the new agency has established local labor and welfare offices throughout the country. A major purpose of the reform was to get more people into work and activity and fewer social benefits.

Comprehensive public-sector employment measures are implemented, including in the form of wage subsidies for companies that include new employees, training and internships, state workplaces, accession measures, special measures for the disabled and more.

In 2005, a new letter of intent for the period 2006–09 on a more inclusive working life was signed between the government and the social partners.

The first letter of intent was signed in 2001 for a four-year trial. The IA agreement aims to ensure a more inclusive working life and to prevent the transition from work to social security.

The agreement focuses on reducing sickness absence and disability pension, increasing the retirement age in the working life and securing the recruitment of persons with reduced disability and other disadvantaged groups in the working life.

Private consumption

Private consumption accounted for about 80 per cent of gross domestic product at the beginning of the 20th century and then declined to around 50 per cent in the 1970s. Parallel to this, the share of public consumption has increased, but from around 1980 the growth in private consumption has been greater than the growth in public consumption.

The savings rate, that is, the portion of household disposable income that does not consume for consumption, was temporarily marked down and was negative in the latter half of the 1980s, but has increased again towards and into the new century.

In parallel with the growth in private consumption, there has been a marked change in the consumption pattern. An ever-decreasing part of the expenditure goes to food and clothing and footwear, while the expenses for housing, travel and transport, leisure activities and education show a clear increase.

Industry

Norway has a relatively large number of small and medium-sized companies. In the international context, Norwegian companies are small, and the Norwegian corporate structure is still characterized by a distinction between the export industry and the domestic market industry.

Export companies, which mainly utilize a raw material and energy base in Norway, are often relatively large companies, while the domestic industry is characterized by a large number of smaller companies.

This applies, for example, to the graphic industry, the food, furniture, textile and parts of the workshop industry.

In the 1980s began a period of mergers and acquisitions that characterize this sector; for example, there are far fewer units in the food industry.

Read more about Norwegian industrial history.

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