The Directorate of Labor estimates that up to 40 people on average will be added to the unemployment registry every day this month. Since January 1, 300 workers have been registered as unemployed.
From the protests in Reykjavík in November 2008. Copyright: Icelandic Photo Agency.
The current unemployment rate in Iceland is 8.1 percent with around 16,000 people without a job, Fréttabladid reports.
The unemployment rate peaked with 9.1 percent in April last year when around 17,000 people were registered as unemployed. After that the rate declined for a few months but has risen again since last autumn.
It is expected that the unemployment rate will continue to rise in the coming months, exceed the unemployment rate of April 2008 and peak at around ten percent.
According to Statistics Iceland, the unemployment in the fourth quarter of 2009 measured 6.7 percent, 7.9 percent among men and 5.4 percent among women, 6.6 percent in the capital region and seven percent outside it, Morgunbladid reports.
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