The crisis caused by the coronavirus has affected the development of the labor market. Today, unemployment figures are much higher than a year ago, but the destructive trend may have come to an end: on a monthly basis, the number of unemployed job seekers fell in August for the fourth month in a row.
Finland had a total of 329,700 unemployed jobseekers registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices at the end of August, showing a year-on-year increase of 97,100. However, the number of unemployed jobseekers decreased by 57,700 from the previous month (July).
These figures, which include those people fully laid off, are from the Employment Bulletin of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.
At the end of August, the number of people laid off was 77,800 in the whole country; a year-on-year increase of 65,600. The number of people fully laid off totalled 61,000, representing an increase of 53,700 from August the year before. The number of people fully laid off decreased by 21,000 from July.
The number of long-term unemployed — that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for more than a year — amounted to 78,800, up 15,400 on the previous year. The number of unemployed jobseekers aged over 50 was 115,300, representing an increase of 28,200 on the year before.
The number of unemployed jobseekers aged under 25 was 42,000, representing an increase of 12,400 from August last year.
Vacancies decreased
The number of new vacancies reported to Employment and Economic Development Offices during August totalled 55,500, showing a decrease of 12,000 from August last year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies at Employment and Economic Development Offices amounted to 98,600 in August; a decrease of 19,500 from the previous year.
At the end of August, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 106,000, down 6,200 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, work trials and self-motivated studies.
Unemployment rate 7.7%
According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in August the number of people in employment was 65,000 less than on the previous year. The employment rate was 71.5%, which was 2.1 percentage points lower than in August the year before.
According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 211,000, which is 42,000 more than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 7.7%, or 1.6 percentage points higher than the previous year.
This information is based on two sources: 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.
