Around 50,000 jobs have been lost in Norway’s struggling oil and gas sector since the price of Brent Crude started to fall, according to reports.
New statistics show the huge impact on the Scandinavian country’s employment market in the period after the oil price plunge.
Investments in the Norwegian continental shelf have been drying up as many operators continue to seek cuts amid the downturn.
The data shows that 50,000 jobs have been lost since 2013. Brent Crude started to drop in June 2014 from a high of around $115 a barrel.
Norwegian Finance Minister Siv Jensen told parliament yesterday that the country had seen growth in other employment areas, with around 80,000 new jobs created elsewhere.
The data, presented by Statistics Norway (SSB), show that approximately 20,000 of the new jobs came from growth in public employment.
The other 60,000 jobs were in the private sector, Jensen added.
Norwegian unemployment hit a 20-year high in 2016 as the labour force expanded more rapidly than employment.
The right-wing minority government, which faces a general election in September, has been criticised by the centre-left opposition for its track record on job creation.
Jensen said the new SSB data gave cause for renewed economic optimism.
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