At the end of 2019, Finland had several thousand vacant jobs less than a year earlier.
According to the latest statistics on open job vacancies released by Statistics Finland, in the last quarter of 2019 there were 37,500 open positions, while the figure was 41,000 one year before.
These figures show the situation as it was on the first day of December 2019. The number of vacancies recorded at the end of the year is also lower than the average registered during the year, which was 50,000. In 2018, the average number of vacancies in the Finnish economy throughout the year was 49,000.
The number of vacancies considered hard-to-fill by the employers also decreased. Still, establishments in human health and social work activities and manufacturing industries had plenty of jobs labeled as hard-to-fill.
Source: Statistics Finland.
In private enterprises
In the last quarter of 2019 , in all, 26,500 or 71% of the job vacancies were offered by establishments owned by private enterprises. This share was practically unchanged from the year before.
Compared with the corresponding period of the year before, open job vacancies decreased in establishments with at least 10 employees (-4,000) and in the major region of Northern and Eastern Finland (-3,400).
Examined by industry, job vacancies decreased (-3,200) in the group of professional, scientific and technical activities, administrative and support services activities and remained more or less unchanged in most other industries.
In the last quarter of the year, 31% of all job vacancies were fixed-term jobs and 17% part-time jobs. The shares of fixed-term and part-time jobs were close to the level one year ago. Employers estimated that 58% of the open job vacancies were hard-to-fill, which is one percentage point less than one year before.
Annual view
In annual terms, of the open job vacancies in 2019, on average, 74% were offered by establishments owned by private enterprises, as in the previous year. Examined by the industry of the establishment, the number of open job vacancies grew on the annual level in the industry group of public administration, education and human health and social work activities and decreased in the industry group of other services.
Source: Statistics Finland.
Examined on the annual level, 36% all job vacancies were fixed-term jobs and 17% part-time. Employers still reported having quite often experienced difficulties in filling open job vacancies. On average, 56% of the open job vacancies in 2019 were assessed as hard-to-fill by the employers, while in 2018 the corresponding share was 53%.
