The unemployment rate among males was 5.4% and 4% among females. The average number of working hours of those who were working in the reference week was 38.7 hours, 44.1 hours for those in full-time employment and 21.7 hours for those in part-time employment.

Long-term unemployment decreases

Of those who were unemployed in the 4th quarter of 2012, 3,400 had been unemployed for two months or less, or 1.9% of the labour force, compared to 2,900 or 1.7% in the 3rd quarter of 2012. The number of those who had been unemployed for 12 months or more decreased by 800 between 3rd and 4th quarter of 2012, from 3,300 or 1.8% of the labour force to 2,500 or 1.4%.

Persons are classified as unemployed who have no employment, are actively seeking a job and could start working within two weeks or have found a job which starts within 3 months. Students who are not employed and fulfil this criteria are considered unemployed. People are classified as working (employed) if they worked one hour or more in the reference week or were absent from work they usually carry out.

Implementation of the Labour Force Survey

The 4th quarter of 2012 covers 13 weeks, from 1st of October to 30th of December 2012. The total sample size was 3,918 persons aged 16–74 years old selected randomly from the National registry. When those who had passed away or those who were living abroad had been deducted from the sample the net sample was 3,821 persons. In total the number of usable answers was 3,130 which correspond to 81.9% response rate. All figures have been weighted by sex and age groups. The confidence limit of the results on activity rate is ±1.3%, employment rate is ±1.4%, unemployment rate is ±0.8% and working hours is ±0.6 hours.

Source: Statistics Iceland

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