People in ocean industries
The labour force in Greater Bergen is highly skilled, well educated and motivated. Drawing from its immense knowledge base, the region continually produces experts and specialists in many marine, finance, health and tech-driven industries.
The region is an important hub in a wide range of value chains, such as oil and gas, seafood and aquaculture, finance, media and technology. Several of these industries also have strong ties to local and regional scientific research communities.
Of those employed in the area, almost 50% hold a degree from a university or college. Like the rest of Norway, the region has experienced a steady growth in employees with higher education since the 1980s. The universities and colleges in the Bergen area educate an increasing number of people, and the demand for skilled, highly educated labour is growing. All this suggests that the proportion of employed people with higher education will also grow in the years to come.
Universities and schools in Greater Bergen
The largest wage earners with higher education in the Bergen region are in teaching, medicine, financial consulting, administration, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), mathematics, life sciences and engineering. For wage earners without a university degree but with a completed secondary education, nursing and sales are dominate professions.
ICT is among the various competences common in Greater Bergen. Photo: Morten Wanvik
The Bergen region employs a somewhat larger proportion of wage earners in academia and higher education than the rest of the country, as well as a lower proportion of craftsmen, process and machine operators, transport workers, cleaners and the self-employed.
Future competences in the region
The labour market in the region will evolve in accordance with changes and shifts in technology, institutions and other socio-economic trends. The demand for and supply of people with certain skills will also change over time.
If recent developments in the labour market are any indictor, growth is expected in academic professions such as ICT consulting, medicine and life sciences, as well as in non-academic professions such as nursing and construction. Furthermore, a reduction in office occupations, among others, can be expected due to automation. It is also expected that the demand for employees with generally high competence and skills in ICT will increase over the coming years.
Although this will likely affect the region’s labour market, Greater Bergen is well positioned to provide adequate manpower with its many educational institutions and highly developed, knowledge-producing industries.
