Decrease in unemployed jobseekers in March

A total of 238,300 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices at the end of March. This was 25,800 fewer than a year earlier. The number of unemployed jobseekers was down by 7,500 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 63,700, down 19,100 on the previous year. The number of unemployed jobseekers aged over 50 was 90,600, or 11,600 fewer than at the same time a year earlier.

Unemployed jobseekers under 25 years of age numbered 29,500, representing a decrease of 2,700 from March last year. Among unemployed young people, the period of unemployment ended within three months on average in 64.4% of cases between January and March, which is 4.6 percentage points less than the year before.

Increase in new vacancies

The number of new vacancies reported to Employment and Economic Development Offices during March totalled 73,300, or 9,600 more than in March the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies at Employment and Economic Development Offices in March amounted to 168,500, which was 27,100 more than a year ago.

At the end of March, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 129,900, down 2,100 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, work trials and self-motivated studies.

At the end of March, the number of people laid off was 20,800 in the whole country, which was 2,400 fewer than at the same time the year before. The number of people fully laid off totalled 14,900, representing a decrease of 400 from March the year before.

Statistics Finland: Unemployment rate 7.0%

According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in March the number of people in employment was up 61,000 on the previous year. The employment rate was 71.8%, which was 1.8 percentage points higher than in March the year before. According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 191,000, which is 49,000 fewer than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 7.0%, or 1.8 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