The main findings of the labour force survey by Statistics Iceland for the fourth quarter of 2024 show that an average of 230,500 people aged 16 to 74 was in the labour force. Of these, 223,800 were employed and 6,800 were unemployed and seeking work. The activity rate was 80.1%. The employment rate was 77.7%, and the unemployment rate was 2.9% of the total labour force aged 16 to 74. In the fourth quarter of 2024, 101,100 women were employed, or 72.6%, while 122,700 men were employed, or 82.6%.
On average, 197,900 people were working each week of the quarter, or 88.4% of the employed population and 68.8% of the total population aged 16 to 74. The average number of total working hours per week was 36.5 hours for those who were working during the reference week, 40.6 hours for those in full-time employment, and 22.5 hours for those in part-time employment.
Compared with the fourth quarter of 2023, the number of employed people increased by 4,500, but the employment rate remained almost unchanged. The number of employed women decreased by nearly 100, while the number of employed men increased by nearly 4,600. The employment rate for women decreased by 1.3 percentage points, while the employment rate for men increased by one and a half percentage points. Overall, unemployment decreased by 0.3 percentage points, 0.3 points for women and 0.2 points for men. The number of unemployed women decreased by 300 year-on-year, and the number of unemployed men decreased by 100.
Of employed individuals in the fourth quarter of 2024, about 168,600 were in full-time employment, or 75.3%, and about 55,200 were in part-time employment, or 24.7%. The number of people in full-time employment increased by 1,800 from the fourth quarter of 2023, and their percentage of the total number of employed decreased by 0.7 percentage points. Of the employed women, 63.3% were in full-time employment in the fourth quarter, and 85.2% of the employed men were in full-time employment. Of those in part-time employment, about 9,100 people were underemployed, or 4.1% of all employed people. In the same quarter of 2023, 3.5% were underemployed, and their number was 7,600. The definition of underemployed are those who work part-time and want to work more.
Average working hours
In the fourth quarter of 2024, the average working hours were measured 36.5 hours for those who were were at work in the reference week. In comparison, the average number of working hours was 35.3 hours in the fourth quarter of 2023, so the average working hours increased by over an hour per week. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the average number of working hours for women was 33.2 hours, while for men it was 39.1 hours. In comparison, women worked an average of 31.3 hours and men 38.7 hours in the fourth quarter of 2023. The difference in the average number of total working hours between men and women in the fourth quarter of 2024 was 5.9 hours.
The unemployment rate was 2.9% in the fourth quarter
The average number of persons in unemployment in the third quarter of 2024 was 6.800 persons, or 2.9% of the total labour force aged 16 to 74. The unemployment rate was the same for both men and women. In comparison, about 7,200 individuals were unemployed in the fourth quarter of 2023, with the unemploymnet rate slightly higher at 3.2%. At that time, the unemployment rate was 3.2% for women and nearly the same for men at 3.1%.
Within the age group 16 to 24, the unemployment rate was 8.6%, which is the same rate as in the same quarter of 2023. For the age group 25 to 54, the unemployment rate was 1.8%, which is 0.8 percentage points lower than it was in the fourth quarter of 2023. For the oldest group, aged 55 to 74, the unemployment rate was 2.4% compared to 1.1% in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Review of population in the Labour Force Survey - Working paper