It’s all about the skills
In a Norwegian employer skills survey that was run in May and June this year, the results showed that companies with a high skills profile engage fewer persons with a low attachment to the labour market than companies demanding low-skilled workers.
Skills Norway has since 2004 conducted an employer survey (Virksomhetsbarometeret). The general topic of the survey is skills demand. This year, some of the questions were about recruitment of vulnerable groups.
The results of the survey showed that during the last year, among Norwegian companies:
- 15 percent have recruited persons with a long absence from working life
- 19 percent have recruited persons without accomplished upper secondary education
- 25 percent have recruited persons with low Norwegian skills
- 25 percent have recruited persons aged over 50
Transport and storage, accommodation and food service, retail and the primary sectors score have recruited many persons with either a hole in the resume or little formal education. These are sectors that typically do not demand highly skilled workers. A distribution of the recruitment questions by the skill profile of the companies confirms this: More companies with low-skilled workers have recruited persons with a long absence from working life, with low Norwegian skills and without competed upper secondary education than companies with high-skilled workers (see table).
| Most employees with higher education | Most employees with vocational education | Most employees with upper secondary general education | Most employees with lower secondary education | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long absence from working life | 13 | 14 | 20 | 21 | 15 |
| Not completed upper secondary education | 7 | 20 | 30 | 48 | 19 |
| Low Norwegian skills | 17 | 26 | 29 | 42 | 25 |
