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Published: 26 November 2019

Employment increased, unemployment almost unchanged compared to one year ago

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, there were 21,000 more employed persons in October than a year earlier. There were 3,000 fewer unemployed than in October 2018. The trend of the employment rate was 72.7 per cent and the trend of the unemployment rate was 6.7 per cent.

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2009/10–2019/10, persons aged 15–64

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2009/10–2019/10, persons aged 15–64

Unemployment and employment vary quite considerably by month and the change from the observation of the previous month mainly describes the seasonal aspect rather than the trend in development. Thus, the latest statistical data are compared to the corresponding period of the year before. By contrast, the figures of the trend series that are adjusted for seasonal and random variation are mutually comparable and phenomena associated with long-term development and cyclical changes are thus more easily observable from the trend of the time series.

The trend usually changes somewhat when the data of the following month are included in the time series. This preliminary nature of trend figures should be taken into account when making conclusions. The figures reported in this release are not adjusted for seasonal variation unless separately mentioned that they concern the trend. Find out more about the trend here .

In October, the trend of the employment rate was 72.7 per cent and the trend of the unemployment rate was 6.7 per cent. Based on the seasonally adjusted data for October, both the trend of the employment rate and the trend of the unemployment rate have remained almost unchanged in recent months.

In October 2019, the number of employed persons was 2,557,000 (margin of error ±35,000), which was 21,000 higher than a year earlier. There were 8,000 more employed men and 13,000 more employed women than in October 2018.

In October, the employment rate , that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 72.0 per cent, having been 71.5 per cent one year earlier. From the previous year’s October, the employment rate of men aged 15 to 64 rose by 0.3 percentage points to 72.4 per cent and that of women by 0.7 percentage points to 71.6 per cent.

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 169,000 unemployed (margin of error ±18,000) in October 2019, i.e. 3,000 fewer than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 96,000 and that of women 73,000.

At 6.2 per cent, the unemployment rate was almost the same in October as one year before. The unemployment rate for men was 6.8 per cent, that is, the same as one year before. The unemployment rate for women fell by 0.3 percentage points to 5.5 per cent.

In October, there were a total of 612,000 young people aged 15 to 24 . Of them, 242,000 were employed and 42,000 were unemployed. The number of young people in the active population, i.e. the employed and unemployed in total, was 284,000. In October, the unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24, that is, the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force, stood at 14.9 per cent, which was almost the same as one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 17.3 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 6.9 per cent.

There were 1,405,000 persons in the inactive population in October 2019, which was 15,000 fewer than one year earlier. Of the inactive population, 121,000 persons were in disguised unemployment , which was 9,000 fewer than in October 2018.

Changes in employment 2018/10 – 2019/10 according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

  Year/Month Change
2018/10 2019/10 2018/10 - 2019/10
1000 persons Per cent, %
Population total 4 126 4 130 0,1
Active population total 2 707 2 725 0,7
Employed 2 535 2 557 0,8
– employees 2 203 2 215 0,6
– self-employed persons and unpaid family workers 332 341 2,8
Unemployed 171 169 –1,5
Inactive population 1 419 1 405 –1,0
– persons in disguised unemployment 130 121 –6,8
  Per cent, % Percentage points
Employment rate, persons aged 15–64 71,5 72,0 0,5
Unemployment rate 6,3 6,2 –0,1
Activity rate 65,6 66,0 0,4
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.
The data comply with the ILO/EU definition.

Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

At the end of October 2019, there were a total of 225,000 persons registered in accordance with the Employment Office Regulations as unemployed job seekers at the employment and economic development offices . The number of unemployed job seekers was 5,000 lower than in October of the year before.

Unemployment fell in October from the corresponding period in 2018 in the areas of 14 Employment and Economic Development Centres: most in Kainuu (–10%), Southwest Finland (–7%), Lapland (–7%), Häme (–6%), Southeast Finland (–4%) and South Ostrobothnia (–4%). The number of unemployed job seekers increased in Pirkanmaa (5%). At the end of October, the number of fully laid off persons registered at the employment and economic development offices was 11,000, which was 3,000 more than twelve months earlier.

The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 124,000 at the end of October, which was 7,000 fewer than in October of the previous year. Altogether, 4.6 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.

There were 27,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25 registered at the employment and economic development offices. Their number was 2,000 lower than in last year's October. During this October, 65,000 new vacancies were reported to the employment and economic development offices, which was 8,000 more than in October 2018.

Changes 2018/10–2019/10 according to the Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

  Year/Month Change
2018/10 2019/10 2018/10 - 2019/10
1000 persons Per cent, %
Unemployed job seekers 230 225 –2,3
– unemployed over a year 68 61 –10,3
Services, total 131 124 –5,2
– employed 25 24 –5,7
– in labour market training, in training 24 24 0,0
– engaged in work/training trials 11 9 –15,9
– as a job alternation substitute, in rehabilitative work, self-motivated studies supported by unemployment benefit 70 67 –5,2
New vacancies at employment and economic development offices 57 65 14,0
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.

Contact information for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment:
Petri Syvänen, tel. +358 29 504 8050, Employment bulletin

Links

Labour Force Survey tables in databases

About seasonally adjusted trend

The accuracy of figures and the margins of error are explained in the quality description of the Labour Force Survey .

Comparison between the employment statistics of Statistics Finland and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

Job vacancy survey

The latest seasonally adjusted employment figures published by the EU and
the latest data on open job vacancies published by the EU can be found on
Eurostat's home page http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat .


Source: Labour force survey 2019, October. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Joanna Viinikka 029 551 3796, Ulla Hannula 029 551 2924, tyovoimatutkimus@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

Publication in pdf-format (449.4 kB)

Tables

Tables in databases

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Appendix tables

Figures
Quality descriptions

Updated 26.11.2019

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Labour force survey [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-7857. October 2019. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 28.3.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/2019/10/tyti_2019_10_2019-11-26_tie_001_en.html