NHO has again ranked the country’s municipalities. This year, as so many times before, it is the oil municipality Sola in Rogaland that tops the statistics. The rating measures the municipalities according to economic sustainability and the local growth potential of business. – It is absolutely fantastic to receive this award from NHO. We have an incredibly great business community in our municipality, which I am very proud of, says mayor Tom Henning Slethei (Frp). Among other things, Sola is ranked at the top in the labor market area, with Norway’s highest employment rate, few disabled people and low sickness absence. – We have a high number of apprentices, a high number of purchases by private companies and we have Norway’s highest workplace coverage. That means approximately 26,000 jobs and 28,000 inhabitants. This means that we are miles away from second place in terms of the number of jobs per employee. Sola mayor Tom Henning Slethei (Frp) has every reason to smile at NHO’s award. Photo: Elise Pedersen / Elise Pedersen Slethei is clear that although the municipality scores well, they have more areas of work in the future. – Things are going well in Sola, but there are many things that we as a municipality must improve on. Now we are going to savor this victory, and then we are going to look at how we can continue to become an even better municipality to work in, but also to live in. This is how they have measured the municipalities: The rating measures the municipalities’ financial sustainability and the local business sector’s growth potential . Kommune-NM 2022 covers 19 different indicators within five thematic areas: Business: Business variation Income level Private employment The municipality’s purchase of private services Labor market Employment rate by place of work Unemployment rate Disability pension Sickness absence Demography Population growth in the last three years Proportion of young people in relation to older people in the workforce Net migration Competence Employed with > 4 years of higher education Employed with professional certificate Employed with higher education in technical/natural science subjects Municipal economy The municipality’s administrative costs per population Ability to pay The municipality’s income in relation to expenses Property tax commercial property Ageing, residents over 80 in 20 years Everything is based on statistics from Statistics Norway and NAV. The rating does not say anything about the individual municipality’s business friendliness, nor where in Norway it is best to live. This year’s municipal NM is based on figures for 2021. Development over the past two years has been strongly influenced by the corona pandemic, associated infection control measures and changes in demand. For each indicator, the municipalities are ranked from 1 for the highest score to 356 for the lowest score. Source: NHO Growth in all counties This year, the ranking shows that there was progress in all counties and in 278 municipalities. It followed a decline in last year’s rating. The rating says nothing about quality of life, or where it is best to live. The map shows how the counties come out in NHO’s assessment. Oslo is at the top, followed by Rogaland and Viken. At the very bottom is Nordland. Illustration: NHO The main features are that it is the city municipalities that do the best. Municipalities on the outskirts, which are characterized by aging and emigration, do the worst. Many of these are located in Trøndelag, Nordland, and Troms and Finnmark. However, the majority are satisfied with the framework conditions in their municipality. Only Tromsø (14), Alta (38) and Bodø (39) are in the top 100. Municipalities that do well tend to have: High variety of industries High level of income High share of private employment Population growth High level of education/specialized skills Younger workforce See how your municipality is doing it on NHO’s overview. For a number of years, Sola municipality has been in the top tier of NHO’s annual ranking. This feature is from 2015, when the municipality also topped the statistics. “Verstingen” The municipality of Lavangen in Troms is at the very bottom of NHO’s overview. Tor Lyngmo hopes that the new “Midnight Sun Staircase” can contribute to making the municipality more attractive. He sits on the board of the project. Creating positivity in a rural community is always positive, says Lyngmo. Now they want to put themselves on the map. – Simply that Lavangen is becoming better known. We see from a tourism perspective that Lavangen is far too little known in the region. – Small municipalities in general are very vulnerable. We have ended up between larger municipalities such as Senja and Narvik, and it is difficult to assert yourself when you are so small. He believes the municipality will get a boost in the coming years. The tourist trail “Midnattsoltrappa” will stretch all the way to the top of Henrikkafossen and will provide spectacular views for those who take the trip. Photo: Linda Pedersen / news Lyngmo is convinced that the stairs will get more people to visit the municipality. It will create ripple effects for the business world, and enthusiasm in the local community. In addition to the stairs, there are also plans for a via ferrata on the mountain side. This will also contribute to increased traffic into the municipality. Tourism in Northern Norway has grown strongly in the last decade, before the pandemic put a strong brake on development. Trying to reverse the trend Nordland is the county that comes out worst, and has many municipalities far down the list. The methodology has previously been met with criticism from bottom municipalities in the county. – For Nordland’s part, it is old history that people score poorly in this type of survey. Much of it depends on the fact that we have emigration and a demographic that speaks against us, says Hugo Bongard Jacobsen (Ap). He is the mayor of Lødingen, which is among the 20 lowest ranked municipalities. The fact that the municipality is a so-called ROBEK municipality does not help in terms of reaching NHO’s award. – We have not been good enough to turn around and focus on the right things. Now business development is something we are very focused on, says Jacobsen. – The most important thing for us will always be the quality of the services we provide to our residents. This survey does not give any indication of that, says the Lødingen mayor. Målfrid Baik, regional director of NHO Arctic, says that if she had known how it could be solved, she would have done it a long time ago. Photo: Moment Studio It may take time to get on the podium Målfrid Baik, regional director of NHO Arctic, points to one factor in particular that makes northern Norway struggle. – There have been few changes since last year, and the years before that again. We have many small municipalities, and the biggest challenge is relocation. People don’t stay in the region, unfortunately. The regional director believes that it will take time to get Northern Norway higher up on the podium, and believes that Northern Norway has a problem with being attractive enough. – We probably have to become even better at highlighting all the good things that happen in the municipalities, says Baik.
ttn-69
Sola tops the statistics again, Lavangen at the bottom – news Troms and Finnmark
