Around 760 former WOW air employees will receive unemployment benefits in May, RÚV reports. Unnur Sverrisdóttir, director of the Directorate of Labour, says the number is lower than originally anticipated. Around 1,100 WOW employees were laid offwhen the company went bankrupt at the end of March. WOW’s cease of operations also led to hundreds more layoffs in other companies.
The Directorate of Labour put together a special team to deal with the mass layoff, which was the largest in Icelandic history. The government also announced additional funding for the institution as a result fo the situation. Unnur says, however, that fewer people have contacted the Directorate of Labour for assistance than expected. “Maybe some could go straight into other jobs,” she stated. “Some were on parental leave and around 50 were studying, but they’re fewer than we expected.”
The Directorate predicts that unemployment will rise by 0.5% in the next monthly report. It was 2.9% in March, and will therefore stand at 3.4% in April if the prediction holds.
