Long-term unemployment continues to fall

A total of 284,100 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices at the end of July. This was 45,000 fewer than a year earlier. The number of unemployed jobseekers increased by 11,300 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 77,000, down 29,200 on the previous year. The number of unemployed jobseekers over 50 years of age was 99,000, or 16,700 fewer than at the same time a year earlier.

Unemployed jobseekers under 25 years of age numbered 39,200, representing a decrease of 6,500 from July last year. Among unemployed young people, the period of unemployment ended within three months on average in 68.0% of cases between January and July, which is 4.8 percentage points more than the year before.

Increase in new vacancies

The number of new vacancies reported to Employment and Economic Development Offices during July totalled 48,100, or 8,900 more than in July the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies at Employment and Economic Development Offices in July amounted to 91,600, which was 16,400 more than a year ago.

At the end of July, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 105,900, up 6,100 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, work trials and self-motivated studies.

At the end of July, the number of people laid off was 17,300 in the whole country, which was 5,000 fewer than at the same time the year before. The number of people fully laid off totalled 11,100, representing a decrease of 2,800 from July the year before.

Statistics Finland: Unemployment rate 6.5%

According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in July the number of people in employment was up 75,000 on the previous year. The employment rate was 74.1%, which was 2.1 percentage points higher than in July the year before. According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 183,000, which is 24,000 fewer than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 6.5%, or 1.0 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

Links:

Employment Bulletin of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment 

Key definitions of the Employment Service Statistics

More detailed information on the Employment Service Statistics is available in the Ministry’s ‘Sector Online’ statistical base: http://www2.toimialaonline.fi/ path: Statistical base – Labour market – Employment service statistics

Joint publication of Statistics Finland and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment