The number of unemployed jobseekers in Finland has grown by more than 2,000 people from a year ago.
According to the latest figures provided by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, at the end of february 248,100 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices. This is 2,300 more than a year earlier. The good news is that they are less than the previous month: the number of unemployed jobseekers decreased by 3,500 from January.
The number of long-term unemployed —that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year — amounted to 63,200, down 1,500 on the previous year. Among those aged over 50, the number of unemployed was 93,600, representing an increase of 700 on the year before.
The number of unemployed jobseekers aged under 25 totaled 29,800, representing a decrease of 700 from February last year. Among unemployed young people, the period of unemployment ended within three months on average in 64% of cases between January and February, which is 0.9 percentage points more than the year before.
New vacancies decreased
The number of new vacancies reported to Employment and Economic Development Offices during February totaled 73,600, or 4,200 less than in February the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies in February amounted to 164,400, which was 3,000 more than a year ago.
At the end of February, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 119,200, down 6,700 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, work trials and self-motivated studies.
The number of people laid off was 24,900 in the whole country; a year-on-year increase of 2,900. The number of people fully laid off totaled 18,800, representing an increase of 2,800 from February the year before.
Statistics Finland: Unemployment rate 6.9%
So far, those are the unemployment data collected by the government from the Employment and Economic Development Offices.
According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in February the number of people in employment was 20,000 more than on the previous year. The employment rate was 71.3%, which was 0.5 percentage points higher than in February the year before.
According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 187,000, which is 13,000 less than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 6.9%, or 0.5 percentage points lower than the previous year.
Key differences between both statistics
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.
In the Ministry’s Employment Service 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 in the Employment Service Statistics.
The Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland has a stricter definition for being unemployed: a person is unemployed if he or she has actively sought employment during the preceding four weeks and is available for work over the coming two weeks.
