PRESS RELEASE

22 November 2022

232,400 unemployed jobseekers in October

The number of unemployed jobseekers decreased by 26,700. The number of new vacancies reported in October totalled 79,800. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies amounted to 160,500, which is 9,100 less than a year ago.

At the end of October, a total of 232,400 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices and municipalities participating in the local government pilots on employment. This is 26,700 less than a year earlier and 500 fewer than in the previous month.

Of the unemployed jobseekers, 129,500, or 9,500 fewer than in October a year ago, were customers of municipalities participating in the local government pilots on employment. The number of unemployed jobseekers also includes those fully laid off. These figures are from the Employment Bulletin of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

At the end of October, the number of people laid off was 16,400 in the whole country, which was 13,100 fewer than at the same time the year before. The number of people fully laid off totalled 10,900, representing a decrease of 8,900 from October the year before. The number of people fully laid off increased by 1,400 from September.

87,700 unemployed in the long term

The number of long-term unemployed — i.e. those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year — totalled 87,700, down 20,200 on the previous year. The number of unemployed jobseekers aged over 50 was 89,300, or 11,400 fewer than at the same time a year earlier.

The number of unemployed jobseekers aged under 25 was 23,600, representing a decrease of 4,300 from October last year. Of the unemployment periods of youths, 62.1 per cent ended before reaching three months between January and October. This is 1.3 percentage points more than the year before.

Decrease in new vacancies

The number of new vacancies reported during October totalled 79,800, or 11,800 less than in October the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies in October was 160,500, which is 9,100 less than a year ago.

At the end of October, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 116,300, up 3,600 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, rehabilitative work and self-motivated studies.

Statistics Finland: The trend of the unemployment rate 6.9%

According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in October the number of people in employment was 66,000 more than on the previous year. The trend of the employment rate was 74.4%, which was 1.6 percentage points higher than in October the year before. According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 162,000, which is 2,000 less than a year ago. The trend of the unemployment rate was 6.9%, or 0.2 percentage points lower than the previous year.

Key differences between Employment Service Statistics and the Labour Force Survey

This information is based on the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment’s Employment Service Statistics and the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland. The Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry are compiled on the basis of the information in the Employment and Economic Development Offices’ customer register, while the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland is based on sampling.

In the employment service statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment persons that are not in employment relationship or employed in business are listed as unemployed. Persons fully laid-off but not full-time students are also categorised as unemployed in the Employment Service Statistics. The Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland has a stricter definition of being unemployed: a person is unemployed if he or she has actively sought employment during the preceding four weeks and is available for work over the coming two weeks. The figures of the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland are internationally comparable and thus they are the official Finnish unemployment statistics.

Further information on the differences between the statistics: https://www.stat.fi/en/statistics/documentation/tyti

Inquiries:
Petri Syvänen, Ministerial adviser, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, tel. +358 29 504 8050.

Links:

Employment Bulletin of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment: https://www.temtyollisyyskatsaus.fi/graph/tkat/tkat.aspx?lang=en

Key definitions of the Employment Service Statistics

https://tem.fi/en/release-dates-of-statistics-and-description-and-quality-description

More detailed information on the Employment Service Statistics is available in the StatFin database: https://statfin.stat.fi/PxWeb/pxweb/en/StatFin/

Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey: https://www.stat.fi/en/statistics/tyti