Employment and unemployment in April 2001

- 38,000 more employed than a year ago
- Employment rate 66.4 per cent
- Rate of unemployment 10.3 per cent, 267,000 unemployed
- 31,000 new vacancies at labour exchange offices

According to the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland, there were 38,000 more employed in April than a year earlier. The number of wage-earners engaged in continuous full-time work was unchanged from the year before. The number of fixed-term and/or part-time jobs increased by 27,000 from the previous year. During April, 31,000 new vacancies were reported to the labour exchange offices, which is 6,000 more than in April 2000.

In April, the employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 66.4 per cent, which is 1.0 percentage points higher than in last year's April. Adjusted for seasonal variation, the employment rate stood at 67.7 per cent in April. Of economic activities, employment grew most in hotels and restaurants, and social services. Jobs increased most in the Province of Western Finland.

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Changes in the labour force 4/2000 - 4/2001, thousand
	April 2001	April 2000	CHANGE, % 4/00 - 4/01
Statistics Finland Labour Force Survey:
Employed, total	2,318	2,280	1.7
- wage earners	1,996	1,968	1.4
Employment rate, %	66.4	65.4	1.0 ²
Unemployed¹	267	283	-5.5
Labour force, total	2,585	2,562	0.9
Unemployment rate, %	10.3	11.0	-0.7 ²
Economically inactive, total	1,321	1,336	-1.1
- discouraged job seekers	34	35	-2.9
- other disguised unemployment	45	59	-23.2
Ministry of Labour Employment Exchange Statistics:
Unemployed job seekers	297	321	-7.6
- unemployed over a year	84	89	-5.6
Employed with subsidised measures	40	44	-8.5
In labour market training	32	39	-17.7
In trainee and job alternation places	16	16	-0.1
New vacancies in labour exchange offices	31	26	22.1
Unrounded figures are used in the CHANGE column ¹ Based on the recommendations of the International Labour Organisation (ILO)			² percentage points

According to the Labour Force Survey, there were 267,000 unemployed in April, i.e. 16,000 fewer than the year before. The rate of unemployment was 10.3 per cent, while it was 11.0 per cent one year previously. The unemployment rate for men was 10.4 per cent and for women 10.2 per cent. One year ago the corresponding figures were 11.4 per cent for men and 10.6 per cent for women. The unemployment rate among persons aged 25 to 74 was 7.6 per cent, whereas it stood at 8.4 per cent during the same period the year before. The unemployment rate among young people aged 15 to 24 was 28.5 per cent, while it was 29.6 per cent in April 2000. Adjusted for seasonal variation, the unemployment rate was 9.1 per cent, 19.8 per cent for young people and 7.5 per cent for persons aged 25 to 74. The rate of unemployment was lowest in the Province of Southern Finland, i.e. 7.7 per cent, and highest in the Province of Lapland, at 19.0 per cent.

The unemployment figures for April are higher than those for March because young people are starting to enter the labour market but many of them have not found a job yet.

At the end of April 2001, there were 297,000 persons registered, in accordance with the Unemployment Security Act and the Labour Exchange Office Regulations, as job seekers at the labour exchange offices. This is about 24,000 fewer than in April 2000. Unemployment declined in the areas of all employment and economic development centres. The number of those covered by employment policy measures fell by 11,000 from the year before and was 3.6 per cent of the labour force. There were 33,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25 registered at the labour exchange offices. Their number fell by 4,000 from April 2000.

Differences between the Labour Force Survey and the Labour Exchange Statistics

The employment situation is monitored monthly both with the sample-based Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland and with the register-based Labour Exchange Statistics of the Ministry of Labour. The Labour Exchange Statistics describe the situation on the last weekday of the month. Since January 2000, data for the Labour Force Survey have been collected for every week of the month, whereas previously they were only collected for the week containing the 15^th day of the month. According to analyses made the impact of the change on the results is negligible on the annual level, but it may vary monthly. For instance, the impact is visible during the spring and summer months as students enter the labour market. The impact is less noticeable during the autumn and winter months.

The Labour Force Survey follows the recommendations of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the practices required by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities. According to them, a person is classified as unemployed if he or she is aged 15 or over, does not have a job, has actively sought employment in the past four weeks and would be available for work within two weeks. The Labour Exchange Statistics are based on legislation and administrative regulations.

The Labour Force Survey and the Labour Exchange Statistics apply two basically different statistical criteria to how actively a person seeks work and makes him/herself available on the labour market. Those unemployed persons who have neither contacted a labour exchange office for over four weeks, nor actively sought work in any other way either, are generally classified in the Labour Force Survey as belonging to disguised unemployment. Full-time students can be recorded as unemployed in the Labour Force Survey if they meet the ILO recommendations, whereas in the Labour Exchange Statistics they are not accepted as being unemployed during term time. Due to statistical differences, the number of unemployed job seekers does not agree with the number of unemployed calculated in accordance with the ILO recommendations. The difference between the April unemployment figures of Statistics Finland and the Ministry of Labour was approximately the same as a year earlier.

Since the Labour Force Survey is a sample survey, its data allow for random variation. In respect of the unemployment rate, for example, the 95 per cent confidence interval or the margin of error is about ± 0.6 percentage points. The confidence interval for the number of unemployed is approximately ± 16,000 persons.

Inquiries:
Statistics Finland: Ms Salme Kiiski +358 9 1734 3230, Mr Hannu Siitonen +358 9 1734 3225,
Mr Tapio Oksanen +358 9 1734 3228, Mr Heikki Tervo +358 9 1734 2921;
e-mail tyovoima.tilastokeskus@stat.fi, Internet http://www.stat.fi/tk/el/tyoll.html
Ministry of Labour: Mr Oiva Lönnberg +358 9 1856 8048, e-mail oiva.lonnberg@mol.fi; Internet http://www.mol.fi/katsaukset/
Latest seasonally adjusted unemployment figures published by the EU at: http://europa.eu.int/en/comm/eurostat/