Unemployment
25. Sep 2024
Unemployment at 0.9% in August
Unemployed people are registered as unemployed with the Faroese unemployment system and the social welfare services, fully available to the labour market and actively seeking work.
In August, the unemployment rate was 0.9%, equivalent to 287 full-time unemployed people. In August 2023, the rate was 0.7%, with 201 full-time unemployed people.
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A full-time unemployed person is defined as one who is unemployed throughout a full month. If two persons are affected by unemployment for half a month each, they are converted to one full-time unemployed person for the month in question. In August, 364 people were affected by unemployment, an increase of 128 compared with August 2023.
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Higher unemployment for both sexes
There were 157 full-time unemployed men in August, equivalent to 1% of the labour force. This is a year-on-year increase of 0.3 percentage points. The August unemployment rate for women was 0.9% (129 full-time unemployed women), up 0.2 percentage points year-on-year.
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Lowest unemployment in Sandoy
The map below shows unemployment rates by region. In August, Sandoy had the lowest rate at 0.4%, down from 1.0% in August 2023. All other regions saw higher year-on-year unemployment rates. Suðuroy has the highest rate, at 1.7%, up 0.5% year-on-year.
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Highest unemployment in age group 25-34
The 25-34 age group had an unemployment rate of 1.4% in August. The lowest rate (0.7%) was registered in the 45-54 and 55-66 age groups.
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One in ten is long-term unemployed
The graph below shows how long people have been unemployed. In August, 39 people (10.7% of all unemployed people) were long-term unemployed, i.e. they had been out of work for more than a year. This is a year-on-year drop of 1.5 percentage points; however, the number of long-term unemployed people increased by ten. In August, the largest group of unemployed people were those who have been out of work between 30 and 89 days.
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Unemployment as a concept
Statistics Faroe Islands and other statistics agencies across the world use the definitions of unemployment given by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which is a United Nations agency.
According to this definition, the unemployment rate reflects the proportion of the labour force that does not have a job, is available to the labour market and is actively looking for work.
In the monthly unemployment reports from Statistics Faroe Islands, unemployed people are defined as those who are registered as unemployed with the Faroese unemployment system and the social welfare services and who meet the above definition of unemployment.