Slightly more employed and unemployed in September 2023 than one year earlier

Employment rate declined slightly

In September 2023, the number of employed aged 15 to 74 was 2,628,000 (margin of error ±31,000), which was 15,000 more than a year earlier. There were as many employed men and 15,000 more employed women compared with last year’s September.

In September, the employment rate of persons aged 20 to 64, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 20 to 64, stood at 77.8 per cent, having been 78.0 per cent in this age group one year earlier. The employment rate of men aged 20 to 64 decreased by 0.4 percentage points to 78.6 per cent, while that of women was 76.9 per cent, that is, it remained almost unchanged compared to one year ago.

The employment rate of persons aged 20 to 69 went down by 0.3 percentage points to 72.1 per cent from last year's September.

Unemployment rate rose slightly

According to Statistics Finland's labour force survey, the number of unemployed aged 15 to 74 was 198,000 (margin of error ±20,000) in September 2023, which was 9,000 more than a year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 108,000 and that of unemployed women 90,000.

In September, the unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 74, that is, the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force, stood at 7.0 per cent, which was 0.3 percentage points higher than one year previously. The unemployment rate of men stood at 7.4 per cent, which was 0.7 percentage points higher than one year previously. Women's unemployment rate was 6.6 per cent, which was 0.2 percentage points lower than one year ago.

In September, the unemployment rate of people aged 15 to 24 stood at 13.8 per cent, which was 1.2 percentage points lower than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 16.6 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 6.7 per cent.

Number of people in the inactive population decreased

There were 1,308,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in September 2023, which was 9,000 fewer than one year earlier.

Seasonally adjusted trend

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. 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

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)