Decrease in unemployed jobseekers in December

A total of 256,500 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices at the end of December. This was 39,000 fewer than a year earlier. The number of unemployed jobseekers increased by 27,100 from the previous month. These figures are from the Employment Bulletin of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

The number of long-term unemployed — that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year — amounted to 66,800, down 24,800 on the previous year. The number of unemployed jobseekers over 50 years of age was 95,000, or 16,000 fewer than at the same time a year earlier.

Unemployed jobseekers under 25 years of age numbered 33,400, representing a decrease of 4,900 from December last year. Among unemployed young people, the period of unemployment ended within three months on average in 69.0% of cases between January and December, which is 1.0 percentage points more than the year before.

Increase in new vacancies

The number of new vacancies reported to Employment and Economic Development Offices during December totalled 45,900, or 5,600 more than in December the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies at Employment and Economic Development Offices in December amounted to 89,600, which was 11,200 more than a year ago.

At the end of December, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 116,400, up 1,800 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, work trials and self-motivated studies.

At the end of December, the number of people laid off was 21,400 in the whole country, which was 4,100 fewer than at the same time the year before. The number of people fully laid off totalled 15,400, representing a decrease of 2,000 from December the year before.

Statistics Finland: Unemployment rate 5.4%

According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in December the number of people in employment was up 84,000 on the previous year. The employment rate was 72.1%, which was 2.5 percentage points higher than in December the year before. According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 146,000, which is 82,000 fewer than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 5.4%, or 3.0 percentage points lower than the previous year.

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 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. 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

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