Unemployment
25. Mar 2025
Unemployment at 1.1% in February
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.
The Faroese unemployment rate reached 1.1% in February 2025, down 0.1 percentage point year-on-year.
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Since not everyone is unemployed every day of a given month, unemployed people are converted to full-time unemployment. 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 February, 320 people were full-time unemployed, a decrease of 37 compared with February 2024. 387 people were affected by unemployment, which is 52 fewer than in February 2024.
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Lower unemployment rate for women
In February, 145 women were affected by unemployment, 36 fewer than in February 2024. The full-time equivalent of this figure is 118, corresponding to an unemployment rate of 0.8%, down 0.2 percentage points from February 2024.
242 men were affected by unemployment, 16 fewer than in February 2024. Men’s unemployment rate stands at 1.2%, with 202 full-time unemployed men. This is 0.1 percentage point higher than in February 2024.
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Lowest unemployment in Sandoy
The map below shows unemployment rates by region. In February, the Sandoy region had the lowest unemployment rate at 0.4%, down from 1.2% in February 2024. Suðuroy had the highest rate at 1.5%, down from 2.7% in February 2024. Norðoyar was the only region with a higher year-on-year unemployment rate.
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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Lowest unemployment in 45-54 age group
The highest unemployment rate in February was registered in the 25-34 age group at 1.3%, 0.3 percentage point less than in February 2024. The lowest rate (0.8%) was registered in the 45-54 age group, down 0.2 percentage points year-on-year. The biggest year-on-year change was registered in the 16-24 age group, which dropped 0.5 percentage point.
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11% are long-term unemployed
The graph below shows how long people have been affected by The graph below shows how long people have been affected by unemployment. The largest group of unemployed people in February (108 persons, or 28% of all unemployed people) were those who have been out of work for between 90 and 179 days.
In February, 43 people (11.1% of all unemployed people) were long-term unemployed. This means that they have been out of work for more than a year (365+ days). The number of long-term unemployed people increased by eight since February 2024, when the proportion of long-term unemployed people stood at 8%.
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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.