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– The Crown crisis is hitting the economy and the labor market hard now, says Labor Minister Torbjørn Røe Isaksen (H).
TAKE EDUCATION: Labor Minister Torbjørn Røe Isaksen hopes those laid off will seize the opportunity to continue their education. Now unemployment is growing again.
Eirik Røsvik
The NAV’s jobless count stopped at 211,700 totally or partially out of the labor market this March, the highest since September last year.
– It is very hard for many when the crisis hits the labor market hard. I myself have a wife who works in a shop and is now laid off, says Røe Isaksen to VG.
NAV’s report on Friday morning shows that 79,607 were laid off and filed for unemployment benefits during March. That’s 2.8 percent of the workforce. Of these, the majority were in store and sales jobs, a total of 15,322 people.
– The numbers capture Viken’s closure. They show that the crown hits hard. Unemployment is now higher than during the financial crisis and the drop in oil prices, says the Labor Minister.
– The faster we have control of the spread of infection, the faster we can get people back to work. But the big challenge will be to create more jobs and include more. This is a crisis that most affects the private sector, he adds.
Take education
One of the main concerns is that unemployment is now very high in industries such as tourism, restaurants and retail, which are often the first step into the job market, especially for people who lack formal qualifications.
Therefore, Torbjørn Røe Isaksen hopes that as many people as possible will use redundancy to get the business certificate or basic education that they did not have before, to be stronger when the society reopens.
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Utepils
– Our biggest concern is that unemployment bites, and then after the last dose of vaccine has been fixed. So it is important to keep the crisis as short as possible. We all contribute to this by following strict restrictions that will prevent further spread of the infection, he says.
– What does it take to get these industries back up and running quickly?
– We must control the infection quickly. “I don’t think I’m the only one who wants to meet some friends for a beer outside,” says the Minister of Labor.
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Too early
Nav chief Hans Christian Holte told E24 that there are still “very serious effects of the pandemic on the labor market.”
– We see that the restrictive measures have an immediate effect on layoffs. With each adjustment, the unemployment figures will increase, and then it will be more time before moving towards a more normal situation, Holte tells E24.
This winter, the opposition in the Storting assured that economic measures in the labor market are extended until October 1. The government was in total disagreement with this and wanted to stop as of July 1.
But Røe Isaksen denies that the opposition was right that the crown crisis is now dragging on:
– No. They are not correct anymore. We also thought it might be okay to open for an extension, but that it was too early to do so, earlier this year, he says.
