Norway jobless rate climbs amid oil price plunge

Norway’s unemployment rate jumped to the highest in more than a decade as a slump in oil prices weighs on an expansion in western Europe’s biggest crude producer.

The surveyed unemployment rate surged to 4.8%in January, the highest since at least the start of 2006, from a revised 4.6% the previous month, according to Statistics Norway.

The nation’s petroleum producers and oil service companies have fired more than 30,000 workers to cope with the worst crude slump in a generation.

The central bank this month cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low and signaled it’s prepared to ease policy further to ward off a recession.

“Today’s data is weaker than forecast by Norges Bank,” said Marius Gonsholt Hov, a senior economist at Svenska Handelsbanken in Oslo.

“At face value, this doesn’t look too good. There’s no moderation in unemployment, the trend is still upwards,” he said.

The number of unemployed rose to 134,000 in January, up from 87,000 in May 2014, when the price of crude was still above $100 a barrel. It’s now below $40.

The number of employed fell to 2.657 million in January from 2.659 million in December.

The central bank has been cutting rates since December 2014 to avoid a recession in the oil-reliant economy.

Norway’s economy stalled in the second half of last year and oil firms are deepening investment cuts.