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Number of unemployed jobseekers nearly doubled in April

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment
Publication date 27.5.2020 8.03
Press release
The visual shows how number of unemployed jobseekers grew in April as compared to the situation in last year.

A total of 433,100 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices at the end of April, showing a year-on-year increase of 203,400. The number of unemployed jobseekers increased by 124,000 from the previous month.

The rapid increase in the number of unemployed jobseekers and particularly in the number of full-time lay-offs was due to restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. These figures are from the Employment Bulletin of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

At the end of April, the number of people laid off was 184,000 in the whole country; a year-on-year increase of 166,600. The number of people fully laid off totalled 163,700, representing an increase of 152,100 from April the year before.

The number of long-term unemployed — that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for more than a year — amounted to 67,400, up 4,300 on the previous year. The number of unemployed jobseekers aged over 50 was 141,500, representing an increase of 53,900 on the year before.

The number of unemployed jobseekers aged under 25 was 56,300, representing an increase of 27,800 from April last year. Among unemployed young people, the period of unemployment ended within three months on average in 64.3% of cases between January and April, which is 1.2 percentage points less than the year before.

Decrease in number of new vacancies

The number of new vacancies reported to Employment and Economic Development Offices during April totalled 50,100; down 18,700 from April a year earlier. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies at Employment and Economic Development Offices amounted to 113,300 in April; a decrease of 31,400 from the previous year.

At the end of April, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 111,000, down 18,800 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 April the number of people in employment was 56,000 less than on the previous year. The employment rate was 70.1%, which was 1.1 percentage points lower than in April the year before. According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 217,000, which is 2,000 less than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 8.1%, or 0.1 percentage points higher 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 http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/tyti_2016-08-23_men_001_en.html

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 https://tem.fi/en/employment-bulletin

Key definitions of the Employment Service Statistics

http://tem.fi/en/release-dates-of-statistics-and-description-and-quality-description

Information on the Employment Service Statistics is available in the StatFin statistical database:https://pxnet2.stat.fi/PXWeb/pxweb/en/StatFin/StatFin__tym__tyonv/ (Charts indicating a person’s job searches and periods started and ended by employment code have been added.)

Joint publication of Statistics Finland and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment https://www.tilastokeskus.fi/til/tyti/tie_en.html

 
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