Employment improved in March 2023 compared to one year ago

Number of employed persons grew from the year before

In March 2023, the number of employed aged 15 to 74 was 2,610,000 (margin of error ±32,000), which was 37,000 higher than a year earlier. There were 14,000 more employed men and 24,000 more employed women than in March 2022.

In March, the employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 20 to 64, stood at 77.7 per cent, having been 77.0 per cent in this age group one year earlier. From last year’s March, the employment rate of men aged 20 to 64 rose by 0.8 percentage points to 77.4 per cent and that of women by 0.6 percentage points to 78.1 per cent.

The employment rate of people aged 20 to 69 was 72.1 per cent, having been 71.2 per cent in the year before.

Number of unemployed persons was almost the same as one year ago

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, the number of unemployed aged 15 to 74 in March 2023 was 193,000 (margin of error ±23,000), which was nearly the same as one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 115,000 and that of women 78,000.

In March, the unemployment rate of persons aged 15 to 74, or the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force stood at 6.9 per cent, having been 7.0 per cent one year earlier. The unemployment rate of men stood at 8.0 per cent, which was 0.7 percentage points more than one year previously. Women's unemployment rate was 5.7 per cent, which was 0.8 percentage points lower than one year earlier.

In March, the unemployment rate of people aged 15 to 24 stood at 18.1 per cent, which was 2.9 percentage points more than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 13.9 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 8.7 per cent.

Number of people in the inactive population decreased

There were 1,320,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in March 2023, which was 35,000 fewer than one year earlier.

Seasonally adjusted trend

Employment and unemployment vary quite much 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. Therefore, only the last published time series should be used when using the trend figures. The preliminary nature of the latest trend figures should be considered when making conclusions. The fall in employment in spring 2020 was interpreted as a level shift in the seasonal adjustment model. The figures reported in this release are not adjusted for seasonal variation unless separately mentioned that they concern the trend.

Links

News 9 Feb 2023: Age group of employment rate changes

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment’s Employment bulletin

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