Iceland

1.Series

Title:

Registered unemployment.

Starting year:

1969.

2.Agency making the initial registrations of unemployed persons

Name of the agency:

Vinnumálastofnun (Directorate of Labour).

Type of agency:

Public service under a national authority.

Name of the national authority:

Ministry of Social Affairs.

Location of the local offices making the registrations:

In all parts of the country.

Type of services provided/administered by the agency:

  • Assisting job-seekers to find jobs;
  • Assisting job-seekers to establish their own business;
  • Assisting employers to find workers;
  • Vocational guidance;
  • Job-related training;
  • Paying unemployment compensation;
  • Other: labour market measures, short courses in different fields.

    Percentage of job-seekers seeking work through the agency:

    Approximately 100%.

    3.The following information is registered about a person:

  • Name;
  • Sex;
  • Social security number (or similar identification number also used by other agencies);
  • Address of usual residence;
  • Date of birth;
  • Citizenship.
  • Nationality
  • Educational/vocational attainment, with 3 categories distinguished. Links to ISCED-76 have been established;
  • Current/past activity status, with 31 categories distinguished;
  • Type of work (occupation) of past or present job with 374 categories distinguished. Links to ISCO-88 have been established (unit groups level);
  • Type of work (occupation) of job sought, with an unlimited number of categories distinguished. Links to ISCO-88 have been established (unit groups level);
  • Name and address of present or previous employer or work place;
  • Type of business (industry) of present/previous employer/workplace, with 616 categories distinguished. Links to NACE, rev.1 have been established (classes level);
  • Previous registrations with the agency/service.

    4.Criteria used for inclusion of a person in the registers (R) and/or the statistics of unemployed persons (S):

  • Being without work (R) and (S);
  • Seeking work (R) and (S);
  • Availability for work (R) and (S);
  • Age (lower limit: 16 years; upper limit: 70 years) (R) and (S);
  • Citizenship (R);
  • Being resident in the country (R);
  • Previously employed (R);
  • Desired duration of employment and/or number of hours of work sought (R) and (S);
  • Previous payment of unemployed insurance contributions (R);
  • Other: entitlement to unemployment benefits accumulated up to 24 months due to sickness, special personal circumstances, imprisonment (R).

    5.Criteria used for exclusion of a person from the registers (R) and/or the statistics of unemployed persons (S):

  • Death (R) and (S);
  • Taking up residency abroad (R) and (S);
  • Commencement of a (new) job (R) and (S);
  • Participation in an employment promotion scheme, public works programme, etc. (R) and (S);
  • Studying or undergoing training (R) and (S);
  • Failure to contact the agency/service (R) and (S);
  • Refusal of suitable job offers (R) and (S);
  • Refusal of suitable training offers (R) and (S);
  • End of entitlement to receive unemployment compensation (R) and (S);
  • Receipt of a pension (R);
  • Inability to work (R).

    6.Definition of unemployed persons used for the statistics

    Registered unemployed refers to those persons who have no or insufficient work relative to their capacity for it and wishes, based on an eight hour working day or the equivalent (shift work, etc), who register as such at an official employment agency and remain on the register by signing at least once a month.

    7.Updating of the registers

    The registers are updated weekly, bi-monthly and monthly.

    8.Unemployment rates

    Statistics from the registers are used to obtain unemployment rates.

    The source of data on employed persons who are part of the denominator of the unemployment rates is Official Estimates.

    Definition of employed persons for this purpose:

    Full-time equivalents.

    9.Type of statistics of unemployed persons produced

    Series 1:

    Reference period:

    Month.

    Frequency of production:

    Monthly.

    Descriptive variables used:

  • Sex;
  • Age;
  • Educational level;
  • Occupation;
  • Industry;
  • Geographic characteristics;
  • Duration of unemployment.

    Form of publication:

  • On paper, for general audience;
  • Machine-readable form, on request;
  • On a website (www.vinnumalastofnun.is).

    Agency responsible for publication:

    Directorate of Labour.

    Title of the publication:

    Yfirlit Yfir Atvinnuástand (Overview of the Employment Situation)

    Series 2:

    Reference period:

    Day.

    Frequency of production:

    Quarterly.

    Descriptive variables used:

  • Sex;
  • Age;
  • Geographic characteristics;
  • Duration of unemployment.

    Form of publication:

    On a website (www.statice.is).

    Agency responsible for publication:

    Statistics Iceland.

    Title of the publication:

    Skráo atvinnuleysi eftir kyni, aldri og lengd atvinnuleysis.

    10.Methodological information about the statistics

    Form of release:

  • On paper, for general audience;
  • In machine-readable form, on request;
  • On a website (Series 1: www.vinnumalastofnun.is; Series 2: www.statice.is).

    Agency responsible for the release:

  • Series 1: Directorate of Labour;
  • Series 2: Statistics Iceland.

    11.Comparisons with unemployment statistics from other sources

    Comparisons have been made with unemployment statistics from the Labour Force Survey.

    Frequency of the comparisons:

    Twice a year (latest year: 2001).

    Publication of the methodology/results of the comparisons:

    These are published by Statistics Iceland in Labour market surveys on unemployment, April and November, (www.statice.is /talnaefn/vinna2001/kafli10.pdf).

    12.Major changes since the start of the statistics

    Major changes in legislation, capacity of the agency and/or administrative procedures took place in 1998. The resulting changes in the statistics have not been estimated.