The rebound in coronavirus cases, which has prevented a full reopening of the economy, continues to have very negative effects on employment figures.
A total of 387,500 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices (TE offices) at the end of July, showing a year-on-year increase of 118,500, the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment said in its latest Employment Bulletin.
However, not all the results are negative. These figures also show an improvement over the previous month: the number of unemployed jobseekers decreased by 29,400 from June.
At the end of July, the number of people laid off was 100,000 in the whole country; a year-on-year increase of 83,900. The number of people fully laid off totalled 82,000, representing an increase of 70,800 from July the year before. However, the number of people fully laid off decreased by 35,000 from June.
Young and long-term unemployed
The number of long-term unemployed — that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for more than a year — amounted to 77,700, up 12,600 on the previous year. The number of unemployed jobseekers aged over 50 was 125,700, representing an increase of 32,200 on the year before.
The number of unemployed jobseekers aged under 25 was 54,000, representing an increase of 17,300 from July last year. .
New vacancies decreased
The number of new vacancies reported to Employment and Economic Development Offices during July totalled 46,300; a decrease of 6,300 from July a year earlier. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies at TE offices amounted to 86,800 in July, showing a decrease of 13,200 from the previous year.
At the end of July, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 94,300, down 6,900 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, work trials and self-motivated studies.
Labour Force Survey
According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in July the number of people in employment was 50,000 less than on the previous year.
The employment rate was 73.2%, which was 1.3 percentage points lower than in July the year before.
According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 216,000, which is 47,000 more than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 7.7%, or 1.7 percentage points higher than the previous year.
This information is based on the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment’s statistics and the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland. The statistics of the Ministry are compiled on the basis of the information in the TE offices' customer register, while the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland is based on sampling.
In the Ministry’s statistics, people that are not in an employment relationship or employed in business are listed as unemployed. Persons fully laid-off but not full-time students are also categorised as unemployed. The Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland has a stricter definition for being unemployed: a person is unemployed if they have actively sought employment during the preceding four weeks and is available for work over the coming two weeks.
