Employment and unemployment in November 2000

- 52,000 more employed than a year ago
- Employment rate 66.8 per cent
- Rate of unemployment 8.7 per cent, 224,000 unemployed
- 19,000 new vacancies at labour exchange offices

According to the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland, there were 52,000 more employed in November than a year earlier. The number of wage-earners engaged in continuous, full-time work was up by 40,000. There were 34,000 more fixed-term and/or part-time employment relationships than twelve months earlier. During November, 19,000 new vacancies were reported to the labour exchange offices, which is 2,000 more than in November 1999.

In November, the employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 66.8 per cent, which is 1.3 percentage points higher than in last year's November. Adjusted for seasonal variation, the November employment rate stood at 67.4 per cent. Of economic activities, employment increased most in financial intermediation and other business services and in social services. Jobs increased most in the Provinces of Southern Finland and Lapland.

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Changes in the labour force 11/1999 - 11/2000, thousand
	November 2000	November 1999	CHANGE, % 11/99 - 11/00
Statistics Finland Labour Force Survey:
Employed, total	2,336	2,284	2.3
- wage earners	2,028	1,953	3.8
Employment rate, %	66.8	65.5	1.3 ²
Unemployed¹	224	237	-5.5
Labour force, total	2,559	2,521	1.5
Unemployment rate, %	8.7	9.4	-0.7 ²
Economically inactive, total	1,344	1,374	-2.2
- discouraged job seekers	35	46	-25.3
- other disguised unemployment	71	86	-17.4
Ministry of Labour Employment Exchange Statistics:
Unemployed job seekers	297	330	-10.0
- unemployed over a year	86	92	-7.2
Employed with subsidised measures	43	46	-8.0
In labour market training	34	43	-21.8
In trainee and job alternation places	17	17	-3.7
New vacancies in labour exchange offices	19	17	11.0
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 224,000 unemployed in November, which is 13,000 fewer than twelve months earlier. The year-on-year change falls within the margin of error of ± 14,000 persons. The rate of unemployment was 8.7 per cent, having been 9.4 per cent in November 1999. Among persons aged 25 to 74, the unemployment rate was 7.4 per cent, whereas in November 1999 it stood at 8.0 per cent. The unemployment rate among young people aged 15 to 24, which in November 1999 was 20.6 per cent, stood at 19.1 per cent. Adjusted for seasonal variation, the November unemployment rate was 9.6 per cent; 21.1 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 6.8 per cent and the highest in the Province of Lapland at 17.1 per cent.

At the end of November, there were 297,000 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 33,000 fewer than in November 1999. Unemployment declined in the areas of all employment and economic development centres. The proportion of those covered by employment policy measures contracted by 14,000 from last year's November and was 3.8 per cent of the labour force. There were 33,000 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 impact is less noticeable during the autumn and winter months.

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 may not agree with the number of unemployed calculated in accordance with the ILO recommendations. The difference between the unemployment figures of Statistics Finland and those of the Ministry of Labour was smaller in November 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, or margin of error, 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,
Mr Tapio Oksanen +358 9 1734 3228, Mr Heikki Tervo +358 9 1734 2921;
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