The main findings of the labour force survey by Statistics Iceland for the first quarter of 2025 show that an average of 231,900 people aged 16 to 74 was in the labour force. Of these, 220,500 were employed and 11,500 were unemployed and seeking work. The activity rate was 80.5%, the employment rate 76.5%, and the unemployment rate was 5.0% of the total labour force aged 16 to 74.
In the first quarter of 2025, 102,800 women were employed, or 73.6%, while 117,700 men were employed, or 79.1%. On average, 200,100 people were working each week of the quarter, or 90.8% of the employed population and 69.4% of the total population aged 16 to 74. The average number of total working hours per week was 35.7 hours for those who were working during the reference week, 40.5 hours for those in full-time employment, and 21.5 hours for those in part-time employment.
Compared with the first quarter of 2024, the number of employed people increased by 1,100, and the employment rate slightly decreased, or by nearly one percentage point. The number of employed women remained unchanged, while the number of employed men increased by one thousand. Consequently, the employment rate for women decreased by 1.2 percentage points, and the employment rate for men decreased by 0.6 percentage points.
Overall, unemployment increased by 0.9 percentage points, 1.3 percentage points for women, and half a percentage point for men. The number of unemployed women increased by 1,500 year-on-year, and the number of unemployed men increased by 600.
Of the employed people in the first quarter of 2025, about 162,500 were in full-time jobs, or 73.7%, and about 57,900 were in part-time jobs, or 26.3%. The number of persons in full-time jobs remained almost unchanged from the first quarter of 2024, but their proportion of the total number of employed decreased by 0.4 percentage points. Among employed women, 63.1% were in full-time jobs in the first quarter, and 83.0% of employed men were in full-time jobs. Of those in part-time jobs, about 10,700 people were underemployed, or 4.8% of all employed. In the same quarter of 2024, 4.6% were underemployed, with their number being 10,100. The definition of underemployed are those who work part-time and want to work more.
Average working hours
In the first quarter of 2025, the average working hours were measured 35.7 hours for those who were were at work in the reference week. In comparison, the average number of working hours was 34.8 hours in the first quarter of 2024. The average working hours has increased by just under an hour per week. In the first quarter of 2025, the average working hours for women was 32.1 hours, while for men it was 38.7 hours. In comparison, women worked 31.6 hours on average and men 37.6 hours in the first quarter of 2024.
The unemployment rate was 5.0%
The average number of persons in unemployment in the first quarter of 2025 was 11,500 persons, or 5.0% of the total labour force aged 16 to 74. The unemployment rate was measured at 4.8% for women and 5.1% for men. In comparison, about 9,300 individuals were unemployed in the first quarter of 2024, with the unemploymnet rate being somewhat lower at 4.1%. At that time, unemployment was 3.5% for women and 4.6% for men.
Within the age group 16 to 24, the unemployment rate was 12.2%, compared to 8.1% in the same quarter of 2024. For the age group 25 to 54 years, unemployment was 4.1%, which is 0.3 percentage points higher than it was in the first quarter of 2024. For the oldest group, 55-74 years, unemployment was 1.9% compared with exactly two percent in the first quarter of 2024.