Unemployment
26. Aug 2024
Unemployment at 1.1% in July
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 July, the Faroese unemployment rate was 1.1%, equivalent to 328 full-time unemployed people. In July 2023, the rate was 0.7%, with 215 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 July, 357 people were affected by unemployment, an increase of 110 compared with July 2023.
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Increased unemployment for both sexes
There were 180 full-time unemployed men in July, equivalent to 1.1% of the labour force. This is a year-on-year increase of 0.4 percentage points. The July unemployment rate for women was 1.0% (148 full-time unemployed women), up 0.3 percentage points year-on-year.
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Lowest rate in Sandoy
The map below shows unemployment rates by region. In July, Sandoy had the lowest rate at 0.4%, down from 1.0% in July 2023. All other regions saw higher year-on-year unemployment rates compared with July 2023. Suðuroy has the highest unemployment rate, at 2.5%, a year-on-year increase of 1.3 percentage points.
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Highest unemployment in age group 25-34
The 25-34 age group had an unemployment rate of 1.4% in July. The lowest rate (0.8%) was registered in the 55-66 age group.
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One in ten is long-term unemployed
The graph below shows how long people have been unemployed. In July, 36 people (10.1% of all unemployed people) were long-term unemployed, i.e. they had been out of work for more than a year. This percentage dropped 1.5% year-on-year; however, the number of long-term unemployed people increased by eight. In July, 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.