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Published: 24 July 2018

Growth in employment continued

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, the number of employed people was 99,000 higher in June 2018 than one year ago. The number of unemployed persons was 192,000 in June, which was 57,000 lower than one year ago. The trend of the unemployment rate was 7.2 per cent in June. The unemployment rate in the second quarter of 2018 was 8.2 per cent, which was 1.8 percentage points lower than in the respective period of 2017.

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2008/06–2018/06, persons aged 15–64

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2008/06–2018/06, persons aged 15–64

Unemployment and employment 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 taken into account 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 .

In June 2018, the number of employed persons was 2,672,000 (margin of error ±33,000), which was 99,000 more than a year earlier. There were 58,000 more employed men and 41,000 more employed women than in June 2017.

In June 2018, the employment rate , that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 75.5 per cent, having been 72.5 per cent one year earlier. From June 2017, men’s employment rate rose by 3.5 percentage points to 77.0 per cent and women’s by 2.6 percentage points to 74.1 per cent. Adjusted for seasonal and random variation, the trend of the employment rate was 71.8 per cent.

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 192,000 (margin of error ±19,000) unemployed in June 2018 , i.e. 57,000 fewer than in June of the year before. The number of unemployed men was 104,000 and that of women 89,000.

At 6.7 per cent, the unemployment rate in June was 2.1 percentage points lower than one year earlier. The unemployment rate of men decreased by 2.3 percentage points to 6.9 per cent, and that of women by 1.9 percentage points to 6.5 per cent. The trend of the unemployment rate was 7.2 per cent.

In June, there were a total of 619,000 young people aged 15 to 24 . Of them, 375,000 were employed and 61,000 unemployed. The number of young people in the active population, i.e. the employed and unemployed in total, was 436,000. In June, the unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24, that is, the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force, stood at 14.0 per cent, which was 7.7 percentage points lower than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 16.2 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 9.8 per cent.

There were 1,257,000 persons in the inactive population in June 2018, which was 33,000 fewer than one year earlier. Of the inactive population, 131,000 persons were in disguised unemployment , which was 28,000 fewer than in June 2017.

Changes in employment 2017/06 – 2018/06 according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

  Year/Month Change
2017/06 2018/06 2017/06 - 2018/06
1000 persons Per cent, %
Population total 4 113 4 122 0,2
Active population total 2 823 2 865 1,5
Employed 2 573 2 672 3,8
– employees 2 245 2 329 3,7
– self-employed persons and unpaid family workers 329 344 4,6
Unemployed 250 192 –23,0
Inactive population 1 290 1 257 –2,5
– persons in disguised unemployment 159 131 –17,5
  Per cent, % Percentage points
Employment rate, persons aged 15–64 72,5 75,5 3,0
Unemployment rate 8,9 6,7 –2,1
Activity rate 68,6 69,5 0,9
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.
The data comply with the ILO/EU definition.

Labour Force Survey data for the second quarter of 2018

In the second quarter (April to June) of 2018, the average number of employed persons was 2,573,000, or 79,000 higher than in the corresponding quarter of 2017. The number of employed persons increased most in human health and social work activities (Q) and in manufacturing (C).

The number of hours worked by employed persons grew by 4.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2018 from the corresponding period in 2017.

The average number of unemployed persons in the second quarter of 2018 was 229,000, which was 46,000 lower than in the corresponding quarter of 2017. The unemployment rate in the second quarter of 2018 was 8.2 per cent, which was 1.8 percentage points lower than in the respective period of 2017.

In the second quarter of 2018, the number of persons in the inactive population was 1,320,000, which was 22,000 fewer than a year earlier. Of the inactive population, 122,000 persons were in disguised unemployment , which was 16,000 fewer than in the corresponding period of 2017.

Changes in employment 2017II – 2018/II according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

  Year/Quarter Change
2017/II 2018/II 2017/II - 2018/II
1000 persons Per cent (%)
Active population total 2 769 2 802 1,2
Employed persons total 2 494 2 573 3,2
Unemployed total 275 229 –16,7
– men 145 122 –15,8
– women 130 107 –17,8
Inactive population 1 342 1 320 –1,6
– persons in disguised unemployment 139 122 –11,7
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 June 2018, there were altogether 273,000 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 47,000 lower than in June 2017.

Unemployment fell in June from the corresponding period in 2017 in the areas of all Employment and Economic Development Centres: most in Satakunta (-20%), Pirkanmaa (-20%), South Ostrobothnia (-19%), and of North Ostrobothnia (-19%). At the end of June, the number of fully laid off persons registered at the employment and economic development offices was 9,000, which was 3,000 fewer than twelve months earlier.

The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 114,000 at the end of June, which was 6,000 more than in June of the year before. Altogether, 4.0 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.

There were 38,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25 registered at the employment and economic development offices. Their number was 8,000 lower than in last year's June. During this June, 50,000 new vacancies were reported to the employment and economic development offices, which was 6,000 more than in June 2016.

Changes 2017/06–2018/06 according to the Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

  Year/Month Change
2017/06 2018/06 2017/06 - 2018/06
1000 persons Per cent, %
Unemployed job seekers 320 273 –14,8
– unemployed over a year 106 77 –27,2
Services, total 108 114 5,2
– employed 25 27 7,8
– in labour market training, in training 18 18 0,6
– engaged in work/training trials 10 11 1,7
– as a job alternation substitute, in rehabilitative work, self-motivated studies supported by unemployment benefit 55 59 6,2
New vacancies at employment and economic development offices 44 50 13,6
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.

Contact information for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment:
Heikki Räisänen , tel. +358 29 504 7118, http://www.temtyollisyyskatsaus.fi

Links

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

Latest seasonally adjusted employment figures published by the EU can be found on Eurostat's home page http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

Job vacancy survey

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 2018, June. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Ulla Hannula 029 551 2924, Pertti Taskinen 029 551 2690, tyovoimatutkimus@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

Publication in pdf-format (632.3 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 24.7.2018

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Labour force survey [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-7857. June 2018. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 28.3.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/2018/06/tyti_2018_06_2018-07-24_tie_001_en.html