The Finnish labor market experienced two positive trends in August. On the one hand, there was an increase in the number of new vacancies reported to employment offices and on the other hand there was a rise in the number of people employed, according to official data published by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Statistics Finland.
The figures released by the Government show that the number of new vacancies reported to Employment and Economic Development Offices during August totaled 67,500. This is 8,500 more than in August 2018. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies at Employment and Economic Development Offices in August amounted to 118,100, which was 13,600 more than a year ago.
At the end of August, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 112,200, down 6,300 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, work trials and self-motivated studies.
232,600 unemployed jobseekers
A total of 232,600 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices at the end of August. This is 10,700 less than a year earlier. The number of unemployed jobseekers was down by 36,300 from the previous month. These figures are from the Employment Bulletin of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.
The number of long-term unemployed —that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year— amounted to 63,400, down 9,900 on the previous year. The number of unemployed jobseekers over 50 years of age was 87,200, or 4,000 fewer than at the same time a year earlier.
Unemployed jobseekers under 25 years of age numbered 29,600, representing a decrease of 1,800 from August last year. Between January and August, the period of unemployment of young people ended within three months on average in 65.8% of the cases, which is 1.9 percentage points less than the year before.
At the end of August, the number of people laid off was 12,300 in the whole country, which was 500 fewer than at the same time the year before. The number of people fully laid off totaled 7,300, representing an increase of 500 from August the year before.
Labour Force Survey: unemployment 6.1%
According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in August the number of people in employment was 32,000 more than on the previous year. The employment rate was 73.5%, which was 0.9 percentage points higher than in August the year before.
According to the same survey, the unemployment total was 170,000, which is 17,000 fewer than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 6.1%, or 0.6 percentage points lower than the previous year.
The information included in this article is based on the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment’s Employment Service Statistics and the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland.
Results may differ because 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.
