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331,500 unemployed jobseekers in March

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment
Publication date 4.5.2021 8.02
Press release
Unemployed jobseekers in the end of March 331 500

At the end of March, a total of 331,500 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices and municipalities participating in the local government pilots on employment. This represents an increase of 22,500 from the previous year. The number of unemployed jobseekers increased by 4,400 from the previous month. Of the unemployed jobseekers, 162,200 were customers of municipalities participating in the local government pilots on employment. The number of unemployed jobseekers also includes those fully laid off. These figures are from the Employment Bulletin of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

At the end of March, the number of people laid off was 79,500 in the whole country; a year-on-year increase of 5,500. The number of people fully laid off totalled 62,700, representing a decrease of 2,600 from March the year before. The number of people fully laid off increased by 7,100 from February.

The number of long-term unemployed — that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year — amounted to 104,000, up 39,100 on the previous year. The number of unemployed jobseekers aged over 50 was 120,000, representing an increase of 12,700 on the year before.

Unemployed jobseekers under 25 years of age numbered 40,600, representing a decrease of 500 from March last year. Among unemployed young people, the period of unemployment ended within three months on average in 54.9% of cases between January and March, which is 10.3 percentage points less than the year before.

Increase in new vacancies

The number of new vacancies reported during March totalled 77,700, or 14,200 more than in March the previous year. The total number of unfilled vacancies amounted to 162,500 in March, which was 12,600 more than a year ago.

At the end of March, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 117,100, down 2,100 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, work trials and self-motivated studies.

Statistics Finland: Unemployment rate 8.1%

According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in March the number of people in employment was 22,000 more than on the previous year. The employment rate was 70.7%, which was 0.5 percentage points higher than in March the year before. According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 219,000, which is 24,000 more than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 8.1%, or 0.8 percentage points higher than the previous year.

Press release on the revision of the Labour Force Survey: https://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/tyti_2020-12-22_uut_001_en.html

Key differences between Employment Service Statistics and the Labour Force Survey

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 of 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. The figures of the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland are internationally comparable and thus they are the official Finnish unemployment statistics.

Further information on the differences in the statistics https://tilastokeskus.fi/til/tyti/tyti_2019-09-13_men_001_en.html

Inquiries:
Petri Syvänen, Ministerial Adviser, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, tel. +358 29 504 8050

 
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