NITO worried about rapidly rising unemployment
NITO is experiencing increased unemployment among engineers and technologists. Sincethe first quarter of 2025, unemployment has increased by 28 per cent.
"The unemployment we are now seeing should cause red warning lights to flash. Not enough jobs are being created in Norway, and politicians must take this seriously," says Kjetil Lein, president of NITO.
Among NITO's members, there are now just under 13,000 unemployed. This is shown by the organization's unemployment statistics, which are updatedregularly, and the increase is the largest since the pandemic. After it stabilized around 2022, there has been an increase in the number of unemployed year by year.
Members are hit hard by the lack of new industry
We are very concerned about unemployment among young members. For the 2025 graduating cohort, it is currently 9.41 percent, which is almost double compared to the 2024 graduating cohort at the same time last year.
"It is positive that one result of the budget negotiations was that the government is appointing a restructuring commission," says Kjetil Lein. NITO welcomes the restructuring commission. It will contribute to important knowledge that NITO has requested, both to further develop the shelf and mainland industry, and as part of the green shift.
- Need for political action
At the same time, NITO's advocates are experiencing an increasing number of reported downsizing cases, and the number of negotiations on severance packages increased by 35 per cent from 2024 to 2025.
The engineers NITO represents often work with planning future projects that in turn will create jobs for other occupational groups.
"Together with unemployment among architects, increased unemployment among our members is often a warning of more difficult times in the labour market, which is why our figures show that there is a great need for concrete political action," says Lein.
With its 116,000 members, NITO is Norway's largest organization for engineers and technologists, and among NITO's working population, 1.52 percent are now unemployed or laid off.
" We are receiving feedback from our union representatives around the country that there will be tough downsizing in 2026," says Lein.