The main results of the Labour Force Survey for the first quarter of 2023 are that the Icelandic labour market show little or no change since previous year.
In employment and employment rate
The proportion of the population aged 16-74 years in the labour market (activity rate), was 79.4% in the first quarter of 2023, which is the same as it was in the same quarter of 2022. The total number of employed in the first quarter of 2023 was 220,700 and the employment rate of the population 76.3%.
Comparison between the first quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023 shows that the number of employed increased by 8,100 and the employment rate increased slightly, or by 0.2 percentage points. The number of employed women increased by 2,800 and men by 5,300. The employment rate for women was measured at 73,0% and for men at 79.4% in the first quarter of 2023. The employment rate in the Capital region was 76.7% and outside the Capital region the rate was 75.7%.
In comparison, 204,200 were employed in the first quarter of 2022 and the proportion of the population was 76.1%. At that time, the employment rate for women was 73.1% and 79.0% for men. The employment rate in the Capital region was 77.2% and 74.5 for those living outside the region.
Of employed individuals in the first quarter of 2023 the number of people working full-time was 155,300 or 73.2% and 57,000 were working part-time or 26.8%. Although the number of people in full-time employment increased by 6,900 from the first quarter of 2022, their percentage of employed people only increased by half of a percentage point. Of employed women, 61.3% worked full-time jobs in the first quarter of 2023 and 83.3% of employed men. Of those who worked part-time in the first quarter of 2023, 7,300 were underemployed. For comparison, 8,500 people were considered underemployed in the same quarter of 2022 or 4.3%. The definition of underemployed are those who work part-time and want to work more.
Average working hours
In the first quarter of 2023, the average working hours was measured 37.1 hours per week for those who were at work in the reference week, 33.1 hours for women and 40.3 hours for men. In comparison, the average number of hours worked was 36.1 in the first quarter of 2022. Women worked an average of 31.7 hours and men worked 39.8 hours on average. Women therefore worked on average 1.4 hours more now than in the first quarter of 2022, while men worked half an hour more than they did in the first quarter of 2022.
The unemployment rate is higher amongs men
The average number of persons in unemployment in the first quarter of 2023 was 8,400 persons, or 3.8% of the labour force 16 to 74 years old. The unemployment rate for women was 2.6% and for men 4.9%. In comparison, 8,800 persons were unemployed in the first quarter of 2022 and the unemployment rate was 4.1%. Unemployment rate among women was then 4.4% and 3.9% among men.
Within the age group 16 to 24 years, the unemployment rate was 9.1%, which is a slightly less than it was in the same quarter in 2022 when it was 10.1%. For those 25 to 54 year olds the unemployment rate was 3.4% and therefore remained the same between years. For the oldest group, 55-74 years old, unemployment rate was 1.5% compared to 2.0% in the first quarter of 2022.