Unemployment
29. Mar 2022
Unemployment rate at 1.0% in January

There were 286 full-time unemployed people in the Faroe Islands in January 2022.

Unemployed people are defined as those without a job, actively seeking work and fully available to the job market.

The graph below shows the unemployment rate and the unemployement trend. The semi-transparet line represents the unemployment rate. The solid line represents the trend.

In January 2022, the unemployment rate was at 1.0%, which corresponds to 286 full-time unemployed people. A total of 345 people were registered as ‘affected by unemployment’, which means they have been unemployed for one or more days in a month.

In comparison, the unemployment rate in January 2021 was at 1.5%. The trend indicates a steady drop in unemployment since last year.

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In January 2022, the unemployment rate for male workers was at 1.0%, compared to 0.9% for female workers. January last year saw the unemployment rate at 1.4% for male workers and 1.6% for female workers.

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The map below shows the unemployment rate for each region. Norðurstreymoy and Norðoyggjar saw the lowest unemployment rate at 0.5%, compared to Suðuroy, which has the highest rate at 2.0%.

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The graph below shows how long people have been unemployed. In January 2022, 17.4% of all unemployed people had been out of work for more than a year, compared to 9.4% in January 2021.

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Why is there a two-month lag in the figures?

Many delayed entries are filed after the end of the registered month. A two-month lag helps ensure accuracy in the statistics.

About unemployment

An unemployed person is defined as someone without a job, fully available to the job market and actively seeking work, aged between 16 and 66 and registered as unemployed in the Faroese unemployment system and the social services in accordance with the above conditions.

Two categories are used in unemployment statistics: full-time unemployment and affected by unemployment.

Affected by unemployment: The number of people who have been unemployed for one or more days in a month.

Full-time unemployment: Since not everyone is unemployed every day of a given month, all individuals affected by unemployment are converted to full-time unemployed. For example, a person who has been unemployed for half a month counts as 0.5 full-time unemployed.

Unemployment rate: The full-time unemployment rate relative to the size of the labour force.