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.