Health and retail offer the largest number of job vacancies in Finland

The number of open job vacancies was 50,900 in the second quarter of 2019, while the figure was 49,500 one year before. The shares of fixed-term and part-time vacancies of all open vacancies decreased compared to the previous year. These data derive from Statistics Finland's statistics on open job vacancies and describe the situation on the first day of June.

When examined by the industry of the establishments, compared to one year before job vacancies increased most in the industry group of public administration, education, human health and social work activities (+1,700 vacancies). In total, this industry group have currently 12,000 open vacancies, many of them considered hard to fill, according to Statistics Finland.

Lack of nurses and doctors

The lack of qualified social workers and health professionals, particularly nurses and doctors, is one of the constant problems faced by the Finnish labor market. Turku-based newspaper Turun Sanomat published today an interview with the Finnish Minister of Social Services Krista Kiuru, who once again addressed the shortage of doctors in public health centers.

The program of the new Finnish Government includes recruiting 1,000 new doctors, a measure that will cost the state around 100 million euros. The Government has allocated 160 million euros in 2019-2022 to hire doctors and to improve the quality of the Finnish health center network.

Vacancies in retail trade

The other great industry group now offering a large number of vacancies (12,700) is wholesale and retail trade, transportation and storage, accommodation and food service activities. However, the rise in this group (+700) was not so pronounced.

By contrast, the field that reduced most the number of vacancies is construction. Currently, the number of open positions offered by construction establishments is 4,800, which is 1,600 less than one year before. The slowdown of activity growth during the last year is directly connected to this reduction.

Agriculture, forestry and fishing (1,400 vacancies) also experimented a clear rise in the number of vacancies compared to one year before, as well as financial, insurance and real state activities (1,400 vacancies).

The number of open job vacancies decreased in the major region of Southern Finland but increased in the major regions of Helsinki-Uusimaa and Northern and Eastern Finland.

74% of vacancies in private enterprises

In the second quarter of 2019, in all, 37,700 or 74% of the job vacancies were in establishments owned by private enterprises, which is almost the same share as one year earlier. Compared with the corresponding period of the previous year, the number of open job vacancies increased in establishments with fewer than five employees (+ 4,500).

Source: Statistics Finland.

In the second quarter of the year, 13% of all open job vacancies were part-time positions and 33% were fixed-term. Both shares decreased by six percentage points compared with the corresponding period of the year before.

Of all job vacancies, employers estimated that 60% (around 30,500)were hard to fill, while the corresponding share one year earlier was 52%. For example, establishments in wholesale and retail trade (G), manufacturing (C) and human health and social work (Q) had plenty of jobs considered hard to fill.

Statistics Finland has been collecting data on open job vacancies quarterly since 2002. The inquiry is directed to persons responsible for recruitment in private or public sector establishments.The data collection includes approximately 2,500 different establishments in every quarter.