Around 12,000 Icelanders are either unemployed or under-employed, although unemployment appears to be levelling off.
Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, speaking at a press conference in Akureyri yesterday, told reporters that 16,750 Icelanders are registered with unemployment offices, 4,700 of whom are at least partially employed – whether working part time, in job training, taking work-related classes or employed in connection with school work.
“These are around 4,700 jobs that this government has created, for the employable on the job market who nonetheless have no full time employment,” she added.
Minister of Finance Steingrímur J. Sigfússon told reporters he was pleased that the unemployment percentage has not increased within the past month, and that it has actually taken a slight decrease between March and April. According to current figures, unemployment is at 9%.
“This is of course a very high percentage and much, much higher than we want to see or are used to,” he said. “but one should have in mind that this is comparable to and in some cases lower than unemployment levels elsewhere in Europe.”