September was a bad month for employment, according to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey.
With Finland hit by the second wave of the coronavirus epidemic and the government restricting economic activity again, last month the number of people employed was 35,000 fewer than a year ago. And there were 47,000 more unemployed than in September 2019. In the total for the third quarter (July September), in Finland unemployment increased by 45,000 people, to 7.7%.
The figures from the latest Labour Force Survey show that in September the total number of employed people was 2,539,000, which was 35,000 lower than a year earlier. There were 10,000 fewer employed men and 25,000 fewer employed women than in September 2019. The employment rate stood at 72%, having been 72.7% one year earlier.
Unemployment rate up
The number of unemployed people increased to 208,000, which is 47,000 more than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 110,000 and that of women 97,000.
The unemployment rate was 7.6% in September, having been 5.9% in the year before. The unemployment rate for men grew by 1.6 percentage points to 7.7% from last year’s September. The unemployment rate for women rose by 1.7 percentage points to 7.4%.
Youth unemployment
In September, there were a total of 607,000 young people aged 15 to 24 in Finland. Of them, 237,000 were employed and 40,000 unemployed. Thus, the number of young people in the active population (employed and unemployed) was 276,000.
The unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24, that is, the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force, stood at 14.3%, which was the same as one year previously.
Third quarter
In the third quarter (July to September), the average number of employed persons was 2,549,000, or 50,000 fewer than in the corresponding quarter of 2019. The number of employed persons decreased most in human health and social work activities, wholesale and retail trade and accommodation and food service activities.
The average number of unemployed persons in the third quarter was 212,000, which was 45,000 more than in the July to September period of the previous year. The unemployment rate in the third quarter of 2020 was 7.7%, which was 1.6 percentage points higher than in the respective period of 2019.
In the third quarter of 2020, the number of persons in the inactive population was 1,375,000, which was 13,000 higher than a year earlier. Of the inactive population, 127,000 persons were in disguised unemployment , which was 16,000 more than in the corresponding period of 2019.
316,000 unemployed jobseekers
According to the Employment Bulletin of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, at the end of September 2020 there were altogether 316,000 persons registered as unemployed job seekers at the employment and economic development offices (TE Offices).
The number of unemployed job seekers was 90,000 higher than in September last year.
