Norway - Economic sectors

Like most of its Western European counterparts, the Norwegian economy has undergone significant structural changes over the last decades of the 20th century. It has become increasingly services-oriented, while the once leading sectors of agriculture, forestry, fishing, and manufacturing have gradually declined in terms of contribution to GDP. In 1999, agriculture, forestry and fishing— although still employing 4 percent of the labor force—accounted for 2.2 percent of GDP in 1998. Industry as a whole accounted for 26.3 percent of GDP while services, including those provided by the government, accounted for 71.5 percent of GDP. This distribution is much like that of other Western European countries,

except that the offshore oil and gas sector is much larger in Norway.

In 1995, the labor force was distributed by occupation as follows: services, 74 percent; industry, 22 percent; and agriculture, forestry, and fishing, 4 percent. The capital-intensive offshore oil sector absorbs only 3 percent of the labor force.