Wednesday, March 25, 2020

"Norway unemployment rate quadrupled over the last two weeks"

From The Barents Observer:
10,4% is the highest unemployment rate since Second World War.
291,000 people are registered as fully unemployed by Tuesday, March 24th, according to the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV). That is up from 65,000 on March 10th.
“The development in the labour market in Norway the last two weeks is second to none,” says Labour and Welfare Director Sigrun Vågeng.

Over the last week alone, the increase is 95%.
The majority of the new people registered the last week are temporarily laid-off workers following the meltdown in the economy as a consequence of the coronavirus lockdown in Norway....MORE
That's bad, I mean unheard of. But. with one of the world's largest percentages of the workforce in the public sector. there is some cushion over the next few weeks.

Just wait for the U.S. numbers tomorrow. We thought this morning's estimate of  1.5 million new unemployment claims, relayed by Marc Chandler was scary. There are now guesses of up to 4 million new claims which almost seems like someone is trying to tell spooky campfire stories to keep me awake tonight.
And it's working.