Unemployment in Finland 8.3% in the first quarter

Finland had an unemployment rate of 8.3% in the first quarter of 2021, which was 1.2 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

According to Statistics Finland's labour force survey, in January to March the average number of unemployed people in the country was 224,000.

This was 34,000 more people in unemployment than in January to March 2020.

Meanwhile, the average number of people employed during the quarter also fell.

According to official figures, the average number of people employed in the same period was 2,476,000, or 15,000 fewer than in the corresponding quarter of 2020.

The number of employed persons decreased most in transportation and storage, while it increased most in wholesale and retail trade.

In the first quarter, the number of persons in the inactive population was 1,426,000, which was 24,000 fewer than a year earlier.

Unemployment 8.1% in March

Finland had an unemployment rate of 8.1% at the end of March 2021, having been 7.3% one year earlier.

According to Statistics Finland, the country had 219,000 people in unemployment at the end of March, which was 24,000 more than one year earlier.

The number of unemployed men was 118,000 and that of women 101,000.

From last year’s March, men’s unemployment rate rose by 0.6 percentage points to 8.3% and women’s by 1.0 percentage points to 7.8%.

Employment figures far from target

The employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 70.7%, having been 70.2 per cent one year earlier.

The figure is still a long way from the 75% target set by the Government chaired by Prime Minister Sanna Marin for this term.

In March the number of employed persons was 2,496,000, which was 22,000 more than a year earlier.

The number of employed men was 21,000 higher and that of employed women was unchanged from March 2020.