According to a report by Fréttablaðið, more than 21,000 people in Iceland were unemployed at the beginning of August. This makes an unemployment rate of 8.5%, an increase compared with the previous three months. 17,788 were in the general benefit system and 3,483 in a reduced employment rate. The figures are given according to a new report from the Directorate of Labor.
This compares with an unemployment rate of 7.5-8% in March, according to MBL.
Fréttablaðið also reports that the highest unemployment is in Suðurnes, at a rate of 16.9%. Many of those unemployed have lost jobs in the tourism industry due to the pandemic, and indeed half of those unemployed in Suðurnes were previously employed in tourism.
This comes alongside a second report from Fréttablaðið, which reveals that 700 families and individuals in the Greater Reykjavík area received food donations in July and August this year.
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