Employment and unemployment in August 2000

- 66,000 more employed than a year ago
- Employment rate 69.5 per cent
- Rate of unemployment 8.3 per cent, 219,000 unemployed
- 27,000 new vacancies at labour exchange offices

According to the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland, there were 66,000 more employed in August than a year earlier. There were 73,000 more wage-earners than in August 1999. The number of self-employed persons fell slightly. The number of wage-earners employed in fixed-term jobs went up by 40,000 and those of wage-earners in fixed-term and part-time jobs by 22,000 and 13,000, respectively. During August, 27,000 new vacancies were reported to the labour exchange offices, which is 5,000 more than in August 1999.

In August, the employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 69.5 per cent, which is 1.7 percentage points higher than in last year's August. Adjusted for seasonal variation, the employment rate stood at 67.3 per cent in August. Of economic activities, employment increased most in government and other services and in trade. Jobs increased most in the Provinces of Southern Finland, Western Finland and Lapland.

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Changes in the labour force 8/1999 - 8/2000, thousand
	August 2000	August 1999	CHANGE, % 8/99 - 8/00
Statistics Finland Labour Force Survey:
Employed, total	2,427	2,361	2.8
- wage earners	2,101	2,028	3.6
Employment rate, %	69.5	67.8	1.7 ²
Unemployed ¹	219	233	-6.0
Labour force, total	2,646	2,594	2.0
Unemployment rate, %	8.3	9.0	-0.7 ²
Economically inactive, total	1,256	1,297	-3.2
- discouraged job seekers	32	44	-26.8
- other disguised unemployment	72	68	6.2
Ministry of Labour Employment Exchange Statistics:
Unemployed job seekers	312	340	-8.4
- unemployed over a year	89	97	-8.1
Employed with subsidised measures	43	51	-16.8
In labour market training	21	31	-30.7
In trainee and job alternation places	14	14	-2.1
New vacancies in labour exchange offices	27	22	22.9
Unrounded figures are used in the CHANGE column ¹ Based on the recommendations of the International Labour Organisation (ILO)			² percentage points

According to the Labour Force Survey, there were 219,000 unemployed in August and the rate of unemployment was 8.3 per cent. In August 1999, the number of unemployed was 233,000 and the rate of unemployment stood at 9.0 per cent. The unemployment rate among persons aged 25 to 74 was 7.3 per cent, having stood at 8.2 per cent in the corresponding period last year. The unemployment rate among young people aged 15 to 24 was 14.7 per cent, whereas in August 1999 it stood at 14.1 per cent. Adjusted for seasonal variation, the unemployment rate was 9.4 per cent; 21.0 per cent among young people and 7.7 per cent among persons aged 25 to 74. The rate of unemployment was the lowest in the Province of Southern Finland at 6.6 per cent and the highest in the Province of Lapland at 14.1 per cent.

At the end of August, there were 312,000 persons registered, in accordance with the Unemployment Security Act and the Labour Exchange Office Regulations, as unemployed job seekers at the labour exchange offices. This is about 28,000 fewer than in August 1999. Unemployment declined in the areas of all employment and economic development centres. The proportion of those covered by employment policy measures contracted by 18,000 from last year's August and was 3.1 per cent of the labour force. There were 40,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25 registered at the labour exchange offices. Their number fell by 5,000 from the previous year.

Differences between the Labour Force Survey and the Labour Exchange Statistics

The employment situation is monitored monthly both with the sample-based Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland and with the register-based Labour Exchange Statistics of the Ministry of Labour. The Labour Exchange Statistics describe the situation on the last weekday of the month. Since January 2000, data for the Labour Force Survey have been collected for every week of the month, whereas previously they were only collected for the week containing the 15^th day of the month. According to analyses made the impact of the change on the results is negligible at the annual level, but it may vary monthly. For instance, the impact is visible during the spring and summer months as students enter the labour market.

The Labour Force Survey follows the recommendations of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the practices required by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities. According to them, a person is classified as unemployed if he or she is aged 15 or over, does not have a job, has actively sought employment in the past four weeks and would be available for work within two weeks. The Labour Exchange Statistics are based on legislation and administrative regulations.

The Labour Force Survey and the Labour Exchange Statistics apply two basically different statistical criteria to how actively a person seeks work and makes him/herself available on the labour market. Those unemployed persons who have neither contacted a labour exchange office for over four weeks, nor actively sought work in any other way either, are generally classified in the Labour Force Survey as belonging to disguised unemployment. Full-time students can be recorded as unemployed in the Labour Force Survey if they meet the ILO recommendations, whereas in the Labour Exchange Statistics they are not accepted as being unemployed during term time. Due to statistical differences, the number of unemployed job seekers does not agree with the number of unemployed calculated in accordance with the ILO recommendations. The difference between the unemployment figures of Statistics Finland and the Ministry of Labour was smaller in August than a year earlier.

Since the Labour Force Survey is a sample survey, its data allow for random variation. In respect of the unemployment rate, for example, the 95 per cent confidence interval is about ± 0.5 percentage points. The confidence interval for the number of unemployed is approximately ± 14,000 persons.

Inquiries:
Statistics Finland: Mr Pekka Tossavainen +358 9 1734 3517, Mr Hannu Siitonen +358 9 1734 3225, Ms Salme Kiiski +358 9 1734 3230, Ms Annukka Ruuhela +358 9 1734 3524; e-mail tyovoima.tilastokeskus@stat.fi, Internet http://www.stat.fi/tk/el/tyoll.html
Ministry of Labour: Mr Oiva Lönnberg +358 9 1856 8048, e-mail oiva.lonnberg@mol.fi; Internet http://www.mol.fi/katsaukset/
Latest seasonally adjusted unemployment figures published by the EU at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/