The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has published the latest figures on unemployment in Finland. Those official numbers, included in the October Employment Bulletin, show a positive trend in terms of unemployment decrease and a rise in the number of open vacancies. Only in October 65,100 new open positions were reported to the employment offices, which was 8,000 more than the previous year.
A total of 224,700 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices at the end of October. This was 5,400 fewer than a year earlier. The number of unemployed jobseekers was down by 1,300 from the previous month.
The number of long-term unemployed —that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year— amounted to 61,300, down 7,100 on the previous year. The number of unemployed jobseekers aged over 50 was 86,200, or 2,300 fewer than at the same time a year earlier.
The number of unemployed jobseekers aged under 25 was 26,700, representing a decrease of 1,700 from October last year. Among unemployed young people, the period of unemployment ended within three months on average in 67.8% of cases between January and October, which is 1.3 percentage points less than the year before.
Increase in new vacancies
The number of new vacancies reported to Employment and Economic Development Offices during October totaled 65,100, or 8,000 more than in October the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies at Employment and Economic Development Offices in October amounted to 120,900, which was 17,100 more than a year ago.
At the end of October, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 124,100, down 6,800 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, work trials and self-motivated studies.
At the end of October, the number of people laid off was 16,600 in the whole country; a year-on-year increase of 2,500. The number of people fully laid off totalled 10,800, representing an increase of 2,800 from October the year before.
Unemployment rate 6.2%
According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in October the number of people in employment was 21 000 more than on the previous year. The employment rate was 72.0%, which was 0.5 percentage points higher than in October the year before.
According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 169,000, which is 3,000 fewer than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 6.2%, or 0.1 percentage points lower than the previous year.
This information is based on the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment’s Employment Service Statistics and the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland. The Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry are compiled on the basis of the information in the Employment and Economic Development Offices’ customer register, while the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland is based on sampling.
