NITO is Norway’s largest organization for engineers and technologists, including 1,236 members in Aust-Agder County and 2,051 members in Vest-Agder County.
Unemployment rate among NITO members is currently 2.7 percent in Vest-Agder and 3.7 percent in Aust-Agder – both well below the general national unemployment rate of 4.9 percent.
“Still, we consider these numbers exceptionally high, as the historical unemployment rate among our members is 0.7 percent”, says Markussen.
He came to Agder to meet GCE NODE and four NODE companies in July, to better understand the challenges facing the industry. Markussen met with executives at RedRock, Nymo, Norsafe and MacGregor.
“I am here to listen and learn. NITO has already established a project in Rogaland County, to match unemployed engineers with companies that are in demand of engineers. The aim is to bridge any gap in competence, to make more engineers from oil and gas qualified for engineering jobs in other sectors”, explains Markussen.
