The number of unemployed individuals in Iceland dropped by 311 between February and March. At the end of March, 11,817 individuals were unemployed or 7.1 percent of the workforce; the unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 percent between months.

Many construction workers now face unemployment. Copyright: Icelandic Photo Agency.

More than half of the people currently unemployed, or 6,057 individuals, have been without work for longer than six months. One third, 3,699 people, have been unemployed for more than a year, Fréttablaðið reports.

The jobless rate among men in Iceland is currently 7.3 percent and measures 6.9 percent among women, according to statistics from the Directorate of Labor.

Ruv.is reports that 2,113 foreign citizens who reside in Iceland were registered as unemployed at the end of March, 59 percent of whom are of Polish origin and mostly worked in the construction industry.

As for differences between regions, the highest unemployment rate is in the Suðurnes region, southwest Iceland, where 12.2 percent of the workforce is jobless. The lowest rate, 2.8 percent, is in northwest Iceland.

In the capital region, 7.8 percent of the workforce is unemployed, a slight decrease compared to February.

Click here to read more about unemployment in Iceland.

ESA