Unemployment
03. Mar 2021
Unemployment rate in December was 1.3%

There were 400 full-time unemployed people in December

The graph below shows the unemployment rate and the trend. The semi-transparent line represents the unemployment rate, and the solid line shows the trend.

In December, the unemployment rate was 1.3% (400 full-time unemployed people). In December 2019, this rate was 0.9%. The total number of people affected by unemployment in December 2020 was 476.

The trend shows that unemployment has stagnated.

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In December, 1.3% of the male and 1.4% of the female labour force were unemployed. In December 2019, these figures were 0.9% and 1.0%, respectively

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The map below shows the unemployment rates in each region. In December, Suðuroy had the highest unemployment rate at 2.2%, followed by Vágar at 1.9%. Norðoyggjar had the lowest rate at 0.8%, followed by Eysturoy at 0.9%.

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The graph below shows how long people have been unemployed. In December, 11.3% of the unemployed people had been out of work for more than a year, compared to 13.0% in December 2019.

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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.