In 2017, a total of 197,094 individuals on average were employed in Iceland. Of those employed, women were 92,855 or 47.1% and men were 104,239 or 52.9%. The number of employed immigrants was 32,543 on average or 16.5% of the total number of employed.
In 2017, the average number of employees each month with a legal residence in Iceland was 190,909, 96.9% of all employees. Thereof, 163,660 employees with a legal residence in Iceland had Icelandic background or 83.5%. Of immigrants, 27,249 had a legal residence in Iceland (83.7%) while 5,295 did not have a legal residence in Iceland (16.3%).
Employees not born in Iceland and whose parents are not born in Iceland, as well as grandparents, are categorized as immigrants according to Statistics Iceland’s classification. Those who do not fall into this category are considered to have an Icelandic background.
The above results are part of a new publication of register based information on employees in the Icelandic Labour Market by Statistics Iceland. The results cover all individuals with income from employment that are reported in the pay as you earn register of the Icelandic tax authorities, including income from jobs, maternity and paternity payments and income of self-employed. The publication encompasses the number of employees by gender, age, background and legal residence. The figures will be updated monthly on Statistics Iceland’s website. The results are preliminary and can change over time.