According to preliminary break and seasonally adjusted figures from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the number of Are persons who worked for pay or profit for at least one hour in the reference week, or who were temporarily absent from their work, because of for instance holidays or sick leave. persons aged 15-74 increased by 42 000 from February (average of January-March) to May (average of April-June).

Small changes in number of unemployed

According to the preliminary break- and seasonally adjusted figures, the number of Are persons without income-producing work, but who have tried to obtain this over the last four weeks and are available for employment in the reference week or within the next two weeks. has been stable at around 4.7-4.9 per cent so far in 2021. In 2020, unemployment increased from a level of less than 4 per cent before the introduction of the corona measures in March to 5,3 percent in August (average from July to September).

New break estimates

From 2021, the LFS has a new questionnaire in addition to several other changes in the sample which may lead to breaks in the time series. Preliminary break estimates for the main indicators in the LFS were presented in May. The break estimates improve with more monthly and quarterly data from the new survey, and new preliminary break estimates are therefore presented in this article. More calculations of the breaks in the time series will be presented during 2021 and revision of the breach estimates must be expected.

The preliminary break estimate for the number of employed persons for the 2nd quarter of 2021 is 21 000, i.e. the new LFS show 21 000 more employed persons than the old LFS would have shown. Not adjusted for the break, the LFS showed an increase of 72 000 employed persons from the 2nd quarter 2020 to the same quarter in 2021. Taking into account the preliminary break estimates, the increase was 51 000.

The preliminary break estimate for the number of [unemployed] persons is 8 000. According to preliminary break estimates, 141 000 people were unemployed in the 2nd quarter of 2021, an increase of 12 000 from the same quarter in 2020.

The preliminary break estimates on employed and unemployed persons are uncertain. The calculations are preliminary and revisions must be expected.