3. Diverse livelihoods and employment We followed two indicators to understand this goal. The first is: inclusive labour policies and standards with an effective welfare system for low income groups. The second: relevant skills and training which includes effective mechanisms for matching skills to the current and emerging employment marketplace.
1.2.
Challenges in Trondheim
The crisis of the oil sector in 2014 increased the unemployment rate of Norway, especially of west coast regions whose economies are based on oil sector. Trøndelag, however, has less impact from that crisis and had a continuous decline in their unemployment rate. According to NAV’s statistics (2017), the unemployment rate of Sør-Trøndelag for 2017 was 2,2%. In December 2017 the rate was 1,9% which is the lowest rate in 30 years, especially the unemployment rate for young people below 30 years has decreased (NAV, 2017). Last year the unemployment rate fell 20% and the sectors with the highest decrease in unemployment rate are engineering and ICT, which has decreased 40% the last two years (NAV, 2017). Bente Wold Wigum, region director in NAV Trøndelag writes in an article published by Adressa, that this is a good starting point for Trøndelag in 2018 (Wigum, 2018). However, another challenge is rising as the demand to get sufficient qualified labor force is rising. The society is in continuous change and the technological development has caused radical changes in the job market. It is predicted that a lot of routine-based work will be replaced by machines and manual labour will be done where working force is cheap. The fast pace of the changes also causes knowledge and competence to not last for long. The need for readjustment in the society is also linked to changes when it comes to the transition to more long-term sustainable solutions, also called “the green change”. Some jobs are more vulnerable than others, and the need for diversity in skills both on state level, city level and personal level is increasing. Acting director Arve Winsnes in NAV Sør-Trøndelag also reminds us that even though the rate is decreasing, there are still a lot of people that are unemployed (Winsnes, 2017). In Trondheim there are 2483 people registered without work, which is 2,4 % of the workforce (the sum of employed and unemployed) in January 2018 (NAV, 2017). There are some groups that are more vulnerable than others. The unemployment rate for immigrants is higher than for the rest of the population. The average on state level is 5,6 for immigrants, while for the rest of the population it is 1,9 (Statistics Norway, 2018). The Directorate of Integration and Diversity (IMDi) (2018), writes that there are two groups: Immigrants who are over-represented in occupations without requirements for education, the other group is immigrants with a high level of education, who are overqualified for their current job. A study among immigrants in 2016 showed that 23% stated that they were overqualified for their job, while 13% of the rest of the population stated the same (IMDi, 2018).
