The total sum of taxable wages and the number of employees decreased significantly within the tourism industry in July 2020 according to new figures on taxable wages and register based employment.
Considerable changes have been seen in the total sum of taxable wages in tourism industries in 2020 but while there was an increase of 10% between June and July 2020, the total sum of wages was 31% lower in July 2020 compared with July 2019. On a similar note, there was an increase of 4% in the number of employees between June and July in 2020, while compared with the year before there was a decrease of 33%. A closer look at the tourism industries shows that the number of employees in travel agencies, tour operators and reservation services and related activities decreased by 43% and 44% for employees working in accommodation.
The total sum of taxable wages in the entire Icelandic labour market decreased slightly between June and July 2020 by 0.8% while the change was greater between July 2019 and 2020 where the decrease was 3.1%. Between June and July 2020, the number of employees increased by 1% while between July 2019 and 2020 the number of employees decreased by 4%. It can be assumed that the majority of those that were laid off work in March or April this year received their last paycheck on notice in July and August. Therefore, the changes in the labour market have not fully materialized in the figures.
Experimental statistics on taxable wages