Lowest unemployment in Europe

The Faroes have had the lowest unemployment rate in Europe for the past ten years.

The latest unemployment rate for the Faroes, from April, was 0.9 percent. Today, 146 people – 64 women and 82 men – are registered as unemployed at the ALS unemployment office.

Next after the Faroes is the Czech Republic, which has a rate more than twice that of the Faroese one.

Last year saw a drop in unemployment rates in all EU nations except Romania.

Of the other Nordic countries, Norway has the lowest unemployment rate, which stood at 3.3 percent at the end of last year. Denmark’s rate was 4.5 percent. Spain had the highest rate, at 13.5 percent.

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With about 28,100 employees, the Faroese labour force has never been larger than now, and unemployment is at an all-time low.

With an owner’s equity of more than DKK 1 billion, the unemployment office (ALS) can now withstand an unemployment rate of 8 percent for five to six years.

On 1 January 2022, the ALS fee was reduced from 1.25 percent to 1 percent.

ALS committee chairman Eyðfinn Jacobsen says it makes sense to lower the fee a bit further.

“We have been revising the structure of our services, and if the government approves our recommendations, we should see a slight reduction in the ALS fee at the start of next year.”

Read the Faroese versions of this article here, here and here.

More Faroese News in English.