30 May 1996
Employment picked up in April
The number of employed increased by close on 60 000 in the year to April, the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland indicates. The number of jobs increased in trade and commerce, manufacturing and in government and other services.Men's employment improved by 40 000 and women's by nearly 20 000 from April 1995. Youth employment improved by over 10 000.
Seasonally adjusted figures show a rise in employment by 7 000 and a fall in unemployment by 4 000 from March to April.
Unemployment stood at 410 000 in April. Compared to April 1995, men's unemployment declined by 38 000, while that of women remained virtually unchanged.
The rate of unemployment or the proportion of those unemployed in the labour force was 16.5 per cent in April. The unemployment rate of men fell by 2.9 percentage points to 16.7 per cent and that of women by 0.1 percentage points to 16.3 per cent in one year. There were 75 000 unemployed young persons in April, which is over 10 000 less than the year before.
97 000 persons were out of work in government and other services in April. In manufacturing, there were 61 000 unemployed persons. Although unemployment declined in relative terms most in construction, the unemployment rate was still highest in that sector, i.e. 32.3 per cent.
Higher unemployment figures in the Ministry of Labour
The data of the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland are collected by interviewing monthly some 12 000 Finns of working age. The Labour Force Survey is a panel survey based on a sample, in which the same person is surveyed five times over a period of eighteen months. The data to be published now are for the period 15-21 April.
The Labour Force Survey provides data both on employment and unemployment. It is based on the recommendations of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and it is comparable with the corresponding statistics of other countries.
The Ministry of Labour also publishes statistics on unemployment. The data on unemployed job applicants are from the last working day of the month. Owing to differences in methods and definitions, the unemployment figures of Statistics Finland and the Ministry of Labour are not comparable. However, the figures generally change in a parallel manner so that the figures of the Ministry of Labour exceed those of Statistics Finland by a few tens of thousands. At the end of April there were 444 100 unemployed persons in the Ministry of Labour's register of job applicants.
When assessing the figures of the Labour Force Survey, the confidence interval, which is due to the standard error of the sample survey, also has to be taken into account. This interval was ± 0.7 percentage points in the unemployment rate in April.
Source: Labour Force Survey, April 1996
Further Information: Tapio Oksanen, tel. +358 0 1734 3228,
Hannu Siitonen, tel. +358 0 1734 3225