A person outside a TE Office in Pasila, Helsinki, in March 2023. Statistics Finland’s latest labour force survey shows that the rate of unemployment rose by 2.0 percentage points year-on-year to 9.0 per cent for men and by 0.5 points to 7.1 per cent for women in October 2024. (Vesa Moilanen – Lehtikuva)
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THE TREND of the unemployment rate crept up to 8.7 per cent in Finland in October, according to the latest labour force survey carried out by Statistics Finland.
Reflecting the ratio of unemployed people to the 15-74-year-old population after adjusting for random and seasonal variation, the trend represents an increase of 0.1 percentage points from September 2024 and one of 1.1 points from October 2023.
“The trend of the unemployment rate has in recent months risen higher than during the labour market crisis triggered by the coronavirus [pandemic] in 2020,” commented Pertti Taskinen, a senior statistician at Statistics Finland.
The ranks of the unemployed among the 15–74-year-old population grew by 38,000 year-on-year to 228,000 in October. Without adjusting for random or seasonal variation, the unemployment rate for the age group stood at 8.1 per cent, representing a jump of 1.3 points from the previous year. The rate rose for both men and women, by 2.0 points to 9.0 per cent and 0.5 points to 7.1 per cent, respectively.
The ranks of the employed, meanwhile, decreased by 19,000 to 2,586,000, with about 22,000 men leaving and a few thousand women entering the ranks.
Taskinen pointed out that the trend of the employment rate for 20–64-year-olds peaked at 78.6 per cent in October 2022.
“Now, two years later, it is over two percentage points lower, at 76.3 per cent. On the other hand, the decline in the trend has not been as dramatic in recent months as it was in the early parts of the year,” he reminded.
The employment rate among 20–64-year-olds fell by 1.7 points year-on-year to 76.4 per cent.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
