Employees
19. Feb 2025
29,300 employees in January – up 1% year-on-year
Employee numbers continue to grow, but the growth has slowed down over the past year, as seen in the trend after adjusting for seasonal variations and other random changes.
In January, there were 29,312 employees in the Faroes. This is 308 people (1%) more than in January 2024.
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Twice as many men than women join labour force
In January, there were almost 14,900 male and just over 14,400 female employees in the Faroese labour force. Compared with January 2024, we see an increase of 200 men (1.4%) and 100 women (0.7%).
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Increasing female representation in public employment
In January, 56% of all employees worked for employers under private control. The remaining 44% worked for publicly controlled employers, which include public institutions and public limited companies. Just over 60% of women in the labour force worked for publicly controlled employers in January, while three in four men worked for privately controlled employers.
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The long-term trend shows that the group of women working for employers under public control has seen the highest proportional increase in recent years. Women working for private employers, on the other hand, have had a slightly negative trend over the past two years.
There is a steady increase in the number of men working for employers under private control. The number of men working for employers under public control is more stable over time.
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Public sector leads job creation
The industrial branches with the largest employee growth were ‘Public administration and defence; compulsory social security’ and ‘Human health and social work’, with almost 300 employees added to these two categories since January 2024. ‘Residential care activities’, a subsector within ‘Human health and social work activities’, saw a particularly high increase, with 168 additional employees, marking an 8% year-on-year increase.
Conversely, ‘Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motocycles’ experienced the biggest decline in employment in number terms, declining by almost 90 employees (2.2%) year-on-year.
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Non-resident employee growth stalls
To qualify as a long-term resident, an individual must have resided in the Faroes for either half of their lifetime or for seven consecutive years at some point in their life.
Recent years have seen a significant increase in employees without long-term residency status. This growth has now slowed down, as shown in the graph below. In January, there was a year-on-year increase of just over 70 employees (4%) without long-term residency. For comparison, this figure was 18.4% in the period from January 2022 to January 2023.
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About the employee statistics
Statistics Faroe Islands’ employee statistics include persons aged 13 or over who receive wages taxed at source (known as A-income in the Faroes) in the registered month, corresponding to at least 4 hours per month through the pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) tax system.
Statistics on employees and jobs follow the guidelines in the International Labor Organization (ILO) manuals on employees and jobs under the United Nations. The ILO defines an employee as a person of working age who has been employed by an employer for at least a short period and has produced goods or provided services for a wage. This includes a) employed persons who have worked at least 1 hour during the period (typically set to 1 week) and b) employed persons who are temporarily out of work (due to e.g. sick leave, parental leave or time off in lieu).
The source of employee statistics is monthly A-income through the PAYE tax system. In accordance with the international standard of at least 1 hour per week, the monthly wage threshold is calculated as 4 hours of wages per employee, since there are about four weeks in a month. The hourly wage is set as minimum wage + holiday pay as per the agreement between the Faroese Labour Union and the Faroese Employers' Union. This means that if the monthly wage is below the limit, the person is not considered an employee that month. According to the Faroese Work and Safety Inspectorate, 13 is set as the lower age limit in the statistics as children younger than 13 cannot be employed.
Updates to employee statistics
In the first half of 2024 the employee statistics have been updated and revised. This has brought about a slight increase in the total number of employees. On average, the number of employees is now 500-1,500 higher each month, for various reasons. Primarily because the new statistics cover a wider age range. The previous figures covered ages 16-74, but now anyone aged 13 or over is included. Other changes include a lower wage threshold value, the addition of more parental leave registrations and the fact that certain payments through the PAYE tax system, previously not considered wages, are now correctly recorded as wages. Most of these payments were previously registered as public benefits, and the new registration affects the employee statistics. With these changes, the latest figures cannot be compared to previous data. The old tables are, however, still accessible in the statbank but will no longer be updated. These tables are labelled 'Outdated' in the statbank.