Employment and unemployment in December 2002

- 6,000 fewer employed than a year ago
- Employment rate 66.7 per cent
- Number of unemployed unchanged from one year ago
- Rate of unemployment 8.1 per cent, 208,000 unemployed
- 16,000 new vacancies at labour exchange offices

According to the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland, the number of employed persons was 6,000 lower than a year earlier. The number of wage-earners engaged in continuous full-time work went down by 33,000. In December, 28,000 more wage-earners than one year ago were in so-called atypical, i.e. part-time or fixed-term, employment relationships. During December, 16,000 new vacancies were reported to the labour exchange offices, which is 3,000 more than in December 2001.

In December, the employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 66.7 per cent, which is 0.3 percentage points lower than the year before. The employment rate for men fell by 0.9 percentage points to 68.3 per cent. The employment rate for women rose by 0.3 percentage points and was 65.1 per cent. Adjusted for seasonal variation, the employment rate was 67.5 per cent. Compared to the previous year's December, employment grew in construction and trade. Jobs declined in manufacturing and transport. Employment increased most in the Province of Oulu and decreased in the Provinces of Southern Finland and Lapland.

Changes in the labour force 12/2001 - 12/2002, thousand

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	December 2002	December 2001	CHANGE, % 12/01 - 12/02
Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey:
Employed, total	2 341	2 347	-0.3
- wage-earners	2 037	2 041	-0.2
- self-employed and unpaid family workers	304	306	-0.9
Employment rate, %	66.7	67.0	-0.3 ²
Unemployed¹	208	208	0.0
Labour force, total	2 548	2 555	-0.2
Unemployment rate, %	8.1	8.1	0.0 ²
Economically inactive, total	1 372	1 358	1.1
- discouraged job seekers	30	38	-20.9
- other disguised unemployment	77	76	1.4
Ministry of Labour's Labour Exchange Statistics:
Unemployed job seekers	304	317	-4.1
- unemployed over a year	76	80	-5.7
Employed with subsidised measures	35	34	2.8
In labour market training	31	25	25.8
In trainee and job alternation places	16	13	22.2
New vacancies in labour exchange offices	16	12	25.9
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 208,000 unemployed in December, i.e. equal to the year before. The rate of unemployment was 8.1 per cent, which was unchanged from the previous year. Adjusted for seasonal variation, the unemployment rate was 9.0 per cent.

In December the unemployment rate for men was 8.7 per cent and for women 7.6 per cent. One year earlier the unemployment rate for men was 7.8 per cent and for women 8.4 per cent. The unemployment rate among young people aged 15 to 24 was 15.7 per cent, while it stood at 14.8 per cent in December 2001. Adjusted for seasonal variation, the unemployment rate for young people was 20.8 per cent. The rate of unemployment was lowest in the Province of Southern Finland, i.e. 6.8 per cent, and highest in the Province of Lapland, at 14.0 per cent. Of all industries, the unemployment rate was highest in construction, 11.1 per cent.

According to the Labour Force Survey, the average number of employed persons in 2002 was 2,372,000, which is 5,000 higher than in 2001. The employment rate was 67.7 per cent, that is, unchanged from the year before. In 2002 the average number of unemployed persons was 237,000, while one year previously they numbered 238,000, on average. In 2002 the unemployment rate was 9.1 per cent, which is the same as in 2001.

At the end of December 2002, there were 304,000 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 13,000 fewer than in December 2001. Unemployment declined elsewhere in the country, but rose in the area of the employment and economic development centre of Uusimaa. The number of those covered by employment policy measures increased by 10,000 from the year before and was 3.3 per cent of the labour force. There were 36,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25 registered at the labour exchange offices. Their number was 2,000 lower than in the previous year's December.

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 December unemployment figures of Statistics Finland and the Ministry of Labour was approximately the same as one year previously.

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, Mr Kalle Sinivuori +358 9 1734 3524, Ms Salme Kiiski +358 9 1734 3230, Mr Veli Rajaniemi +358 9 1734 3434;
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/