Gissur Pétursson, head of the Directorate of Labor, expects the average unemployment rate in Iceland to be nine percent next year. Currently, 17,000 workers are without jobs in Iceland, fewer than last winter. However, their number is likely to increase again.
Construction workers in Iceland in 2004. Copyright: Icelandic Photo Agency.
“Unemployment has dropped slightly since June but nonetheless the […] outlook isn’t bright,” Pétursson told Morgunvaktin, the morning news program on RÚV’s Rás 2 radio station.
Pétursson said that it is difficult to predict whether another wave of unemployment is coming up next fall. The directorate received announcements of four mass layoffs at the end of last month, in which 360 people lost their jobs.
Click here to read more about unemployment in Iceland.
