318,400 unemployed jobseekers in Finland

Finland had 318,400 unemployed jobseekers registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices and municipalities participating in the local government pilots on employment at the end of April.

This is 114,600 less than a year earlier, but 88,800 more than in April two years ago. The number of unemployed jobseekers also decreased by 13,100 from the previous month, according to the latest Employment Bulletin of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

Of the unemployed jobseekers, 158,600 were customers of municipalities participating in the local government pilots on employment.

At the end of April, the number of people laid off was 70,200 in the whole country, which was 113,800 fewer than at the same time the year before. The number of people fully laid off totalled 53,900, representing a decrease of 109,800 from April the year before. The number of people fully laid off decreased by 8,800 from March.

The number of long-term unemployed — that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year — amounted to 109,700, up 42,300 on the previous year.

The number of unemployed jobseekers over 50 years of age was 116,200, or 25,400 less than at the same time a year earlier.

Unemployed jobseekers under 25 years of age numbered 38,600, representing a decrease of 17,700 from April last year.

Increase in new vacancies

The number of new vacancies reported during April totaled 76,100, or 26,000 more than in April the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies in April amounted to 152,900, which is 39,600 more than a year ago.

At the end of April, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 117,000, up 6,000 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, work trials and self-motivated studies.

According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in April the number of people in employment was 29,000 more than on the previous year. The unemployment rate was 9.0%, nearly 1 percentage point higher than the previous year.

To understand the key differences between the two unemployed-counting methods and their results, it is important to know that the Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry are compiled on the basis of the information in the employment services customer's register, while the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland is based on sampling.