Unemployment
27. Jan 2025
Unemployment at 0.9% in December
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.
Compared to the previous year, unemployment in December was unchanged at 0.9 percent. Fewer people were affected by unemployment in December 2024, but converted to full-time unemployment, the number of people was higher. This means that the length of unemployment has increased.
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.
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In December, 285 people were full-time unemployed, an increase of 13 compared with December 2023. 319 people were affected by unemployment, which is 24 less than in December 2023.
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Lower unemployment rate for women
There were 102 full-time unemployed women in December, equivalent to 0.7%. This is a year-on-year decrease of 0.1 percentage point. The December 2024 unemployment rate for men was 1.1%, which is 0.1 percentage point higher than in December 2023. There were 183 full-time unemployed men in December 2024.
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Lowest unemployment in Sandoy
The map below shows unemployment rates by region. In December, the Sandoy region had the lowest unemployment rate at 0.5%, down from 1.0% in December 2023. Suðurstreymoy had the highest rate at 1.2%. The highest year-on-year unemployment growth was registered in Vágar, where the rate increased by 0.4%.
More regional statistics on unemployment are found here: Norðoya region, Eysturoyar region, Norðstreymoyar region, Suðurstreymoyar region, Vága region, Sandoyar region, Suðuroyar region
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Highest unemployment in 25-34 age group
The highest unemployment rate in December was registered in the 25-34 age group at 1.4%, which is a slight increase on December 2023. The lowest rate (0.7%) was registered in the 16-44 age group, down 0.1 percentage point year-on-year.
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13% are long-term unemployed
The graph below shows how long people have been unemployed. In December, 42 people (13% of all unemployed people) were long-term unemployed, i.e. they had been out of work for more than a year. The number of long-term unemployed people increased by 13 since December 2023. The largest groups of unemployed people in December were those who have been out of work 1-3 months or 3-6 months.
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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. Unemployment reports from Statistics Faroe Islands only cover people aged 16-66.
For international comparisons, see Labour force survey.