Approximately 5,400 jobs were vacant in the fourth quarter of 2021 according to the results of Statistics Iceland’s Job Vacancy Survey. At the same time, the number of occupied jobs on the Icelandic labour market was estimated to be 217,375 resulting in a 2.4% job vacancy rate, see confidence interval in the table below.
Compared with the third quarter of 2021, the number of vacant jobs decreased by 3,400 and the job vacancy rate decreased by 1.4 percentage points between quarters. Comparison with the same quarter of 2020 shows that vacant jobs increased by 2,600 and the job vacancy rate increased by 1.0 percentage points.
About the data
The Icelandic Job Vacancy Survey is a sample survey, performed quarterly amongst legal entities in Iceland. The population consists of all legal entities in Iceland with more than one employee. The sample is constructed once every year, in the beginning of the year, from a sampling frame listing all legal entities in the year before. The reference date for the fourth quarter of 2021 was 15 November and the response rate 92.3%.
Information about the number of occupied jobs come from register-data. The register-based counts of employed come from the Pay as you earn data which is obtained from Iceland Revenue and Customs settlement of cash payment of wages and/or calculated remuneration. Statistics about register-based employees are temporary figures which can change over time as the quality of raw data is better for later years.
When interpreting the results of vacant jobs and the job vacancy rate, it is important to keep in mind that they are built on a sample survey at a given reference period. Therefore, the results should be interpreted by taking the 95% confidence intervals into consideration.
When updating the figures for the fourth quarter of 2021 the whole time-series of the Job Vacancy Survey was updated do to changes in the survey weights. The update entailed minor changes to previously published statistics.