Finland had 332,800 unemployed jobseekers at the end of January registered at the unemployment offices, according to the latest bulletin of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. This is 81,200 more than a year earlier, but 24,500 less than in December 2020.
The number of people laid off was 75,100 in the whole country; a year-on-year increase of 50,700. The number of people fully laid off totaled 57,800, representing an increase of 39,400 from January the year before. The number of people fully laid off decreased by 20,000 from December.
The number of long-term unemployed — those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year — amounted to 93,400, up 30,000 on the previous year.
The number of unemployed jobseekers aged over 50 was 120,900, representing an increase of 26,500 on the year before.
The number of unemployed jobseekers aged under 25 was 40,200, representing an increase of 9,500 from January last year.
Decrease in new vacancies
The number of new vacancies reported to Employment and Economic Development Offices during January totaled 83,600, or 9,200 less than in January the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies at Employment and Economic Development Offices in January amounted to 129,900, showing a decrease of 16,400 from last year.
At the end of January, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 112,300, down 3,600 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, work trials and self-motivated studies.
Unemployment rate 8.7%
According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in January the number of people in employment was 61,000 less than on the previous year. The employment rate was 69.9%, which was 2.0 percentage points lower than in January the year before.
According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 235,000, which is 41,000 more than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 8.7%, or 1.6 percentage points higher than the previous year.
