A nice piece of positive news broke today. The rate of registered unemployment in Iceland dropped to 9% in April, marking a 2.6% decrease on the previous month. In real terms, this translates to about 14,669 unemployed citizens, a decrease of 390. Who said this country was in the middle of a kreppa?

Men saw the greatest drop in unemployment rates, with around 374 fewer unemployed, whereas for women the figure for April stands at only 16. The drop is proportionally larger in rural areas than in Greater Reykjavík, where unemployment dropped by about 2% (184 people), in contrast with a rural decrease of about 4% (206 people).

The construction industry saw a real-term decrease of 217. It is evident that unemployment is still more prevalent in the capital area, where the figure stands at 9.7% compared to 7.8% in the countryside, a difference of 1.9%. The region with the highest unemployment rate (14.6%) is Suðurnes, a peninsula close to Reykjavík (mostly lava fields), whilst the least affected region is the Westfjords (3.7%).

For those of you lucky enough to understand Icelandic, more information on unemployment rates can be found in the original article. Hopefully these figures point to the first signs of a recovery, but we wouldn’t want to speak to soon.

Labels: Kreppa, Unemployment