Employment and unemployment in July 2001

- 23,000 more employed than a year ago
- Employment rate 71.3 per cent
- Rate of unemployment 7.6 per cent, 204,000 unemployed
- 21,000 new vacancies at labour exchange offices

According to the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland, there were 23,000 more employed in July than a year earlier. The growth of employment has slowed down compared to the early part of the year. The number of wage-earners engaged in continuous full-time work grew by 35,000. The number of fixed-term and/or part-time jobs increased by 2,000 from the previous year. During July, 21,000 new vacancies were reported to the labour exchange offices, which is 3,000 more than in July 2000.

In July, the employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 71.3 per cent, which is 0.5 percentage points higher than in last year's July. Adjusted for seasonal variation, the employment rate stood at 67.8 per cent in July. Of economic activities, employment grew in manufacturing, business services, education and social services. Jobs increased in the Provinces of Southern and Western Finland and Oulu.

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Changes in the labour force 7/2000 - 7/2001, thousand
	July 2001	July 2000	CHANGE, % 7/00 - 7/01
Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey:
Employed, total	2,491	2,468	0.9
- wage-earners	2,167	2,129	1,8
Employment rate, %	71.3	70.8	0.5 ²
Unemployed¹	204	210	-2.6
Labour force, total	2,695	2,678	0.6
Unemployment rate, %	7.6	7.8	-0.2 ²
Economically inactive, total	1,214	1,224	- 0.8
- discouraged job seekers	38	46	-17.4
- other disguised unemployment	64	69	-7.7
Ministry of Labour's Labour Exchange Statistics:
Unemployed job seekers	318	338	-5.9
- unemployed over a year	84	90	-6.7
Employed with subsidised measures	35	40	-11.1
In labour market training	17	20	-13.2
In trainee and job alternation places	13	12	4.4
New vacancies in labour exchange offices	21	18	15.1
Unrounded figures are used in the CHANGE column ¹ Based on the recommendations of the International Labour Organisation (ILO)			² percentage points

The fall of unemployment has also decelerated. According to the Labour Force Survey, there were 204,000 unemployed in July, i.e. 6,000 fewer than the year before. The rate of unemployment was 7.6 per cent, while it was 7.8 per cent one year previously. The unemployment rate for men was 7.0 per cent and for women 8.2 per cent. One year ago the corresponding figures were 6.7 per cent for men and 9.1 per cent for women. The unemployment rate among young people aged 15 to 24 was 12.0 per cent, while it was 12.4 per cent in July 2000. The rate of unemployment was lowest in the Province of Southern Finland, i.e. 5.8 per cent, and highest in the Province of Lapland, at 15.0 per cent. Adjusted for seasonal variation, the unemployment rate was 9.0 per cent, 19.3 per cent for young people. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has remained at about 9 per cent since May.

According to the Labour Force Survey, the number of employed persons in the January to July period of this year, 2,369,000, was 41,000 higher than in the corresponding period last year. The number of unemployed persons was 254,000, which is 21,000 lower than in the January to July period in 2000.

At the end of July 2001, there were 318,000 persons registered, in accordance with the Unemployment Security Act and the Labour Exchange Office Regulations, as job seekers at the labour exchange offices. This is about 20,000 fewer than in July 2000. Unemployment declined in the areas of all employment and economic development centres. The number of those covered by employment policy measures fell by 7,000 from the year before and was 2.5 per cent of the labour force. There were 46,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25 registered at the labour exchange offices. Their number fell by 4,000 from July 2000.

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. The data for the Labour Force Survey are collected for every week of the month.

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 July unemployment figures of Statistics Finland and the Ministry of Labour was smaller than as 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 the 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, Ms Salme Kiiski +358 9 1734 3230, Mr Hannu Siitonen +358 9 1734 3225, Mr Tapio Oksanen +358 9 1734 3228;
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/en/comm/eurostat/