The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Iceland rose to 4.7 percent in May 2019 from an upwardly revised 3.2 percent in the previous month. It was the highest jobless rate since October 2014, as the number of unemployed people increased by 3,300 to 10,000 while employment fell by 2,400 to 200,000. The activity rate went down to 81.1 percent from 82.4 in April while the employment rate decreased to 77.2 percent from 79.8 percent. A year ago, the unemployment rate was lower at 1.6 percent. Unemployment Rate in Iceland averaged 2.45 percent from 1970 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 9.10 percent in April of 2011 and a record low of 0.10 percent in August of 1972.
Unemployment Rate in Iceland is expected to be 3.20 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Unemployment Rate in Iceland to stand at 2.60 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Iceland Unemployment Rate is projected to trend around 3.00 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.