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Published: 22 September 2020

Employment weakened and unemployment grew in August from one year ago

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, the number of employed people was 65,000 lower in August 2020 than one year ago. There were 42,000 more unemployed than in August 2019. The trend of the employment rate was 71.6 per cent and the trend of the unemployment rate was 7.5 per cent.

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2010/08–2020/08, persons aged 15–64

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2010/08–2020/08, persons aged 15–64

Employment and unemployment 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 considered 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 .

The trend of the employment rate was 71.6 per cent in August and the trend of the unemployment rate was 7.5 per cent.

In August 2020, the number of employed persons was 2,533,000 (margin of error ±36,000), which was 65,000 lower than a year earlier. There were 19,000 fewer employed men and 47,000 fewer employed women than in August 2019.

In August, the employment rate , that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 71.5 per cent, having been 73.5 per cent one year earlier. From the previous year’s August, the employment rate of men aged 15 to 64 fell by 1.3 percentage points to 72.9 per cent and that of women by 2.8 percentage points to 70.0 per cent.

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 211,000 unemployed (margin of error ±20,000) in August 2020, i.e. 42,000 more than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 110,000 and that of women 101,000.

The unemployment rate was 7.7 per cent in August, having been 6.1 per cent in the year before. The unemployment rate for men went up by 1.1 percentage points from the previous year’s August to 7,7 per cent. The unemployment rate for women rose by 2.1 percentage points to 7.8 per cent.

In August, there were a total of 607,000 young people aged 15 to 24 . Of them, 231,000 were employed and 51,000 unemployed. Thus, the number of young people in the active population, i.e. the employed and unemployed in total, was 282,000. In August, the unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24, that is, the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force, stood at 18.0 per cent, which was 3.9 percentage points higher than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 19.1 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 8.3 per cent.

There were 1,393,000 persons in the inactive population in August 2020, which was 33,000 more than one year earlier. Of the inactive population, 123,000 persons were in disguised unemployment , which was 11,000 more than in August 2019.

Changes in employment 2019/08 – 2020/08 according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

  Year/Month Change
2019/08 2020/08 2019/08 - 2020/08
1000 persons Per cent, %
Population total 4 128 4 137 0,2
Active population total 2 768 2 744 –0,9
Employed 2 598 2 533 –2,5
– employees 2 272 2 202 –3,0
– self-employed persons and unpaid family workers 326 330 1,1
Unemployed 170 211 24,7
Inactive population 1 360 1 393 2,4
– persons in disguised unemployment 112 123 9,6
  Per cent, % Percentage points
Employment rate, persons aged 15–64 73,5 71,5 –2,1
Unemployment rate 6,1 7,7 1,6
Activity rate 67,1 66,3 –0,7
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 August 2020, there were altogether 330,000 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 97,000 higher than in August last year.

Unemployment rose in August from the corresponding period last year in the areas of all Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment: most in Uusimaa (60%), Ostrobothnia (52%), Pirkanmaa (44%) and Southwest Finland (43%). The number of unemployed job seekers grew least in Kainuu (4%), South Savo (19%), North Karelia (21%), Central Finland (23%) and Southeast Finland (26%). At the end of August, the number of fully laid off persons registered at the employment and economic development offices was 61,000, which was 54,000 more than twelve months earlier.

The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 106,000 at the end of August, which was 6,000 fewer than in August of the year before. Altogether, 3.9 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.

There were 42,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25 registered at the employment and economic development offices. Their number was 12,000 higher than in last year's August. During this August, 56,000 new vacancies were reported to the employment and economic development offices, which was 12,000 fewer than in August last year.

Changes 2019/08–2020/08 according to the Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

  Year/Month Change
2019/08 2020/08 2019/08 - 2020/08
1000 persons Per cent, %
Unemployed job seekers 233 330 41,7
– unemployed over a year 63 79 24,3
Services, total 112 106 –5,5
– employed 24 22 –9,2
– in labour market training, in training 19 24 22,2
– engaged in work/training trials 7 5 –27,6
– as a job alternation substitute, in rehabilitative work, self-motivated studies supported by unemployment benefit 61 55 –10,3
New vacancies at employment and economic development offices 67 56 –17,7
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

The new classification of the employer sector was adopted in the Labour Force Survey starting from 1 January 2020. Comparison data according to the new classification of employer sectors for 2019 are published only in the appendix tables of the monthly and quarterly releases.

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 2020, August. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Joanna Viinikka 029 551 3796, Tatu Leskinen 029 551 3285, tyovoimatutkimus@stat.fi

Head of Department in charge: Hannele Orjala

Publication in pdf-format (451.5 kB)

Tables

Tables in databases

Pick the data you need into tables, view the data as graphs, or download the data for your use.

Appendix tables

Figures
Quality descriptions

Updated 22.9.2020

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Labour force survey [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-7857. August 2020. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 29.3.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/2020/08/tyti_2020_08_2020-09-22_tie_001_en.html