The main results of the Labour Force Survey for the second quarter of 2023 are that the Icelandic labour market shows little change from the previous year.
The proportion of the population aged 16-74 years in the labour market (activity rate), was 81.9% in the second quarter of 2023, which is little higher than it was in the same quarter of 2022 when it measured 81.6%. The total number of employed in the second quarter of 2023 was 222,100 and the employment rate of the population 79.1%.
Comparison between the second quarter of 2022 and the second quarter of 2023 shows that the number of employed increased by 11,500 and the employment rate increased by one percentage point. The number of employed women increased by 4,200 and men by 6,700. The employment rate for women was measured at 75,8% and for men at 82.2% in the second quarter of 2023. The employment rate in the Capital region was 79.4% and outside the Capital region the rate was 78.6%.
In comparison, 210,600 were employed in the second quarter of 2022 and the proportion of the population was 78.1%. At that time, the employment rate for women was 74.8% and 81.1% for men. The employment rate in the Capital region was 78.2% and 77.9 for those living outside the region.
Of employed individuals in the second quarter of 2023 the number of people working full-time was 170,800 or 86.4% and 51,300 were working part-time or 13.6%. The number of people in full-time employment increased by 5,100 from the second quarter of 2022 and their percentage of employed people increased by 0.6 of a percentage point. Of employed women, 86.8% worked full-time jobs in the second quarter of 2023 and 88.5% of employed men. Of those who worked part-time in the second quarter of 2023, 6,800 were underemployed. For comparison, 6,800 people were considered underemployed in the same quarter of 2022 or 3.2%. The definition of underemployed are those who work part-time and want to work more.
Average working hours
In the second quarter of 2023, the average working hours was measured 35.8 hours per week for those who were at work in the reference week, 31.9 hours for women and 38.9 hours for men. In comparison, the average number of hours worked was 36.3 in the second quarter of 2022. Women worked an average of 32.5 hours and men worked 39.5 hours on average. Overall, people spent an average of 36 minutes less at work in the second quarter of 2023 than they did in the same quarter of 2022. This applies to both men and women.
The unemployment rate is higher amongst men
The average number of persons in unemployment in the second quarter of 2023 was 7,800 persons, or 3.4% of the labour force 16 to 74 years old. The unemployment rate for women was 2.6% and for men 4.1%. In comparison, 9,500 persons were unemployed in the second quarter of 2022 and the unemployment rate was 4.3%. Unemployment rate amongst women was then 3.2% and 5.2% amongst men.
Within the age group 16 to 24 years, the unemployment rate was 9.7%, which is a decrease from what it was in the same quarter in 2022 when it was 13.9%. For those 25 to 54 year olds the unemployment rate was 2.7% and almost stayed the same between years. For the oldest group, 55-74 years old, unemployment rate was one percent compared to 2.5% in the second quarter of 2022