ESO News

Has COVID-19 changed the way we work? What will the future workplace look like? And how can employers ensure they stay competitive after the pandemic?

The ongoing Covid crisis has had and still continues to have a considerable impact on different sectors of the European economy. Hope for a fast recovery has been repeatedly contradicted by new waves of infections leading to renewed measures that slowed down the pace of recovery in national economies. This publication presents empirical data from Eurostat’s database with a focus on some figures from the tourism sector for the EU 27 complemented by additional figures from EFTA Member States.

In the aftermath of the 2019 International Statistical Institute’s (ISI) World Statistics Congress, several of the presentations of the joint session organised by the EFTA Statistical Office (ESO) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) were published in the Statistical Journal of the International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS).

Volker Täube, Director of ESO, represented EFTA at the fifty-first session of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) in New York from the 3rd to 6th of March 2020.

Reliable, responsive and complete vital statistics provide essential information on populations that is critical for sustainable and inclusive development. Particularly for the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals, vital statistics are required to measure and monitor all population-based targets and indicators.

The EFTA Statistical Office (ESO) has published an article on the foreign trade relations of the four EFTA States Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland with its partner countries in the EU and the rest of the world. The article points to the importance of the EU as the most important trading partner of the EFTA States and underlines the sensitivity of the EFTA States to the planned withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU. See the explanatory notes in the bottom for methodological details.

The European Statistical System (ESS) is a partnership among Eurostat, the national statistical institutes and other national authorities providing high-quality, official statistics for Europe. The EFTA States are, together with the EU Member States, part of this "statistical production factory" which employs around 50 000 people in 32 different countries.

Eurostat recently released a mobile app which provides access to the main statistical data on regions within the member states of the EU and EFTA.

Data published recently by Eurostat show that the overall price levels in the EFTA countries were higher than the average price level in the European Union (EU) in 2014. Switzerland had the highest overall price level, followed by Norway. Iceland was closer to the EU average, but some products, like consumer electronics, were relatively more expensive in Iceland than in the other EFTA countries.

A part-time worker who wishes to work more, and is available to do so, is defined as underemployed. Eurostat recently published data on underemployment in the European Union (EU) and EFTA countries based on the European Labour Force Survey of 2014.

37 000 people applied for asylum in one of the EFTA countries in 2014. This represents an increase of 11% from 2013, according to new data released by Eurostat.

The European Union had a surplus in international trade in services of almost EUR 180 billion in 2013, of which one third came from trade with EFTA.

Income inequality, measured by the Gini coefficient, varies across Europe. Newly published data from Eurostat show that Norway and Slovenia had the lowest inequality among the EU and EFTA countries in 2012, whereas the highest inequality was found in Spain and Latvia. In both Iceland and Switzerland income inequality was below the EU28 average.

The European Union’s international trade in services with the rest of the world increased in 2012, with EU exports of services to the EFTA countries rising by 2.4%, from EUR 103.2 billion in 2011 to EUR 105.7 billion in 2012; and EU imports rising by 6.6%, from EUR 69.7 billion to EUR 74.3 bn.

A recent Eurostat report shows that the average expenditure per trip was highest for visitors to Iceland (EUR 1 217 per trip in 2010), followed by Norway (EUR 638 per trip in 2007) and Spain (EUR 529 per trip in 2008).

Never be at a loss for numbers again! The Eurostat app for iPhone/iPad and Android gives mobile access to the main statistical data on the EFTA States, the European Union and its Member States, the euro area, the EU candidate countries and other selected countries.

The total number of asylum applicants in the four EFTA countries reached almost 39’000 in 2012. This represents an increase of roughly 17% compared to one year before. In 34% of all cases a positive decision was granted in first instance.

According to Control Risks, an independent British risk consultancy, the four EFTA countries, together with Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Sweden, are the safest countries in the world.

Have you ever listened to or taken part in a discussion about citizenship granted in your country? Statistics is frequently used in these discussions, often without a proper reference. Next time you have the chance to be prepared. In a recent publication Eurostat provides the answers to the questions you might have on the subject.

The EFTA States have the highest employment rate in Europe and the lowest share of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion. The EFTA countries are also among the countries in Europe with the highest level of tertiary educational attainment.

On 21-23 of May 2012, EFTA's Statistical Office (ESO) organised a training course on price statistics in Kiev hosted by the State Statistics Service of Ukraine.

A Eurostat news release shows that the percentage of part-time workers aged 15 to 74 of the total employment in 2011 was 28.1 % for Norway and 35% for Switzerland.

Eurostat recently published the spring 2012 edition of its quarterly leaflet “Basic figures on the EU”. This publication also provides a selection of the freshest data for economic and social domains of EFTA States.

Eurostat recently published a new inflation visualisation tool on its website.

A recent Eurostat publication on inflation shows that Iceland’s annual inflation rate in September 2011 was the highest in the European Economic Area (EEA) at 5.5%. Switzerland's annual inflation rate in September was the lowest in the EEA at 0.2%, increasing from -0.3% in August.

Eurostat - the statistical service of the European Community - has released a pocketbook, Key figures on Europe – 2011 edition. The pocketbook provides users of official statistics with an overview of the wealth of information that is available on the Eurostat website. The publication provides a balanced set of indicators, with a broad cross-section of information on the Member States of the European Union, as well as the EFTA States.

On 29 March 2011, figures concerning asylum applications were published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union. Overall, figures show a decrease in asylum applicants in 2010 compared to 2009 in EFTA countries.

In 2009, the EU27 recorded that external trade in services slowed down compared to 2007 and 2008. The figures show, however, that the EFTA block is a main trading partner in services for the EU27. According to Eurostat, EU27 imports of services from EFTA fell from EUR 63.3 billion in 2008 to EUR 59.7 billion in 2009, while the exports of services fell from EUR 87 billion to EUR 82.8 billion in the same period. The deficit for the EFTA block in trade in services with EU27 therefore amounted to EUR 23.1 billion in 2009.

According to a Eurostat news release on 16 September 2010 Norway and Switzerland are amongst the main trading partners for the Member States of the European Union. Measuring the extent of trade as the sum of the values of imports and exports, the news release indicates that only the United States and China had traded more with the EU 27 than Norway and Switzerland combined, in the first half of 2010.

From 21 to 23 June the EFTA Statistical Office (ESO) organised a course on the European Statistical System (ESS) for statisticians involved in the production of official statistics in Turkey.

Representatives from the EFTA Statistical Office visited Statistics Norway last week.

Asylum applicants figures have been published for the third quarter of 2009. Overall, figures show an increase in asylum applicants in Q3 2009 compared to Q3 2008 for Norway and Liechtenstein and a decrease for Switzerland.

The latest Eurostat publication on inflation shows a continuous decrease in the annualized inflation rate for Iceland through year 2009 whilst for other EFTA countries the annual rates were rather stable. Switzerland showed negative price growth for several months in 2009, but the annual rate for December was slightly positive.