Some employers find it difficult to fill vacant positions, even though there are currently 12,553 unemployed individuals in Iceland with the unemployment rate being 7.4 percent. On a daily basis, the Directorate of Labor removes people from the unemployment registry for not being active in seeking employment.
Copyright: Icelandic Photo Agency.
If those registered as unemployed prove inactive job seekers or turn down job offers three times, they are deprived of their rights to unemployment benefits, Morgunbladid reports.
“I find the situation has become very strange. I have worked since I was a teenager and have never turned down a job offer. There are around 12,500 people without employment and it has even become difficult to get people to try to work. People have started to calculate their salaries as a difference to unemployment benefits,” commented Davíd Fannar Gunnarsson, managing director of the telecommunication company Hringdu.
Gunnarsson has specifically approached people who are registered as unemployed. He offers them a monthly salary of ISK 215,000-240,000 (USD 1,900-2,100, EUR 1,300-1,400) to begin with while full unemployment benefits are ISK 160,000 (USD 1,400, EUR 960) per month.
Since January 1, 2011, ISK 11,400 million (USD 99 million, EUR 69 million) has been paid in benefits to those without employment.
Click here to read more about unemployment in Iceland.
