New reports show no exaggeration of employment data

Following a high-profile controversy in October 2000 about the exaggeration of employment data by the Norwegian Labour Market Administration, a clean-up operation was initiated. Two independent reports published in February 2001 show that since the clean-up started there has not been any deliberate attempt to exaggerate data, nor significant numbers of false registrations.

The Director of the Norwegian Labour Market Administration (Aetat), Ted Hanisch, resigned in October 2000 after it was revealed that the organisation had for a long period provided false and exaggerated figures concerning the number of people it had helped to find jobs. An external audit showed that 25%-30% of Aetat's labour exchange activities had been registered falsely according to its own procedural rules (NO0011112F).

When the new Director of Labour, Lars Wilhelmsen, enters office on 19 February 2001, he will take charge of a reorganised and revitalised Aetat. Two independent reports made public on the 5 February 2001 show that the clean-up operation carried out within Aetat has had its desired effects, because there have been no deliberate attempts to exaggerate data, nor significant numbers of registration failures, since the process was initiated in the autumn of 2000.

Following the revelations about deliberate exaggerations of employment figures, Jon Blaalid was appointed temporary director with the responsibility of addressing any malpractice within Aetat. A plan of action was developed, which included a thorough examination of every local labour exchange office in Norway, in order to get rid of local arrangements and routines conflicting with the normal guidelines of Aetat.

Two independent companies, the Centre for Economic Analysis (Econ) and the Agenda consultancy and development group, were given the task of evaluating the effects of the measures introduced to reform Aetat's activities. Agenda evaluated the registrations declared in relation to ordinary labour exchange activity, and found that the number of registration failures since the clean-up operation was started was significantly lower than the figure provided by the external audit carried out in autumn 2000 by Det Norske Veritas. Econ examined Aetat registration figures in four other core areas of activity, including the registration of unemployed people, participants in employment training and occupationally disabled people participating in labour market measures. The Econ report found only minor deviations between Aetat's registrations of unemployed people and the actual employment situation of the people concerned. However, Aetat statistics still overestimate the number of people participating in labour market training measures, which, according to the report is due largely to insufficient procedures with regards to the recording of people terminating their participation in such measures.

Mr Wilhelmsen was appointed Director of Labour on 19 January 2001. Although much of the hard work has been done before he enters office, the job is not short of challenges. Norwegian labour market policy and practice is presently being examined and evaluated with the view to bringing it up to date with modern realities, and although this will not have significant effects on the structure of Aetat itself, it will beyond doubt have some bearing on how the organisation works. The most significant proposal in this regard is a reduction in the number of labour market measures from 20 to five focusing on core groups.