Unemployment
30. Mar 2020
Unemployment rate in January 2020 was 1.1%

Unemployment went down by 0.2% from January 2019 to January 2020.

There were 315 fewer full-time unemployed people in January 2020 than in January 2019.

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The unemployment rate for men over the January 2019-January 2020 was 1.2% and 1.0%, and for women it was 1.6% and 1.2%.

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The chart below shows unemployment rates in each region.

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In January 2020, just over 60% of unemployed people had been without a job for less than three months, and 40% for more than three months.

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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.