21 December 2004
Employment and unemployment in November 2004
- Number of employed persons 45,000 higher than
one year ago
- Employment rate 67.1 per cent
- Number of unemployed unchanged
- Rate of unemployment 8.1 per cent, 207,000 unemployed
- 22,000 new vacancies at labour exchange offices
According to the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland, the number of employed persons in November 2004 was 2,362,000, or 45,000 higher than a year earlier. The number of unemployed persons remained unchanged. The number of economically inactive persons was 35,000 lower than twelve months previously.
There were 53,000 more wage earners than one year earlier. By contrast, the number of self-employed persons fell by 9,000. The number of wage earners engaged in continuous full-time work was 34,000 higher than twelve months back. The number of persons employed part-time went up by 18,000. Compared with November 2003, employment increased in manufacturing, trade, hotel and restaurant activities, business services and health and social services. Jobs decreased in construction and transport. Employment increased in all other provinces except for that of Oulu where it remained almost unchanged.
In November, the employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 67.1 per cent, which was 1.2 percentage points higher than one year earlier. The employment rate for women rose by 1.6 percentage points to 65.9 per cent and that for men by 0.9 percentage points to 68.3 per cent. Adjusted for seasonal variation, the employment rate was 67.9 per cent.
Changes in the labour force 11/2003 - 11/2004, thousand
| November 2004 | November 2003 | CHANGE, % 11/03 - 11/04 |
|
| Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey: | |||
| Employed total | 2 362 | 2 317 | 1.9 |
| - wage and salary earners | 2 070 | 2 017 | 2.7 |
| - self-employed and assisting family members | 291 | 300 | -3.0 |
| Employment rate, % | 67.1 | 65.9 | 1.22 |
| Unemployed 1 | 207 | 208 | -0.3 |
| Unemployment rate, % | 8.1 | 8.2 | -0.12 |
| Labour force, total | 2 569 | 2 525 | 1.7 |
| Labour force participation rate | 65.2 | 64.2 | 1.0 2 |
| Economically inactive, total | 1 371 | 1 406 | -2.5 |
| - students | 392 | 412 | -4.8 |
| - persons performing domestic work | 86 | 93 | -7.5 |
| Economically inactive persons in disguised unemployment | 98 | 103 | -5.1 |
| Ministry of Labour's Labour Exchange Statistics: | |||
| Unemployed job seekers | 276 | 278 | -0.7 |
| - unemployed over a year | 73 | 70 | 3.2 |
| Employed with subsidised measures | 36 | 36 | -1.2 |
| In labour market training | 36 | 35 | 1.0 |
| In trainee and job alternation places | 23 | 23 | 0.8 |
| New vacancies at labour exchange offices | 22 | 18 | 21.2 |
| 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 207,000 unemployed in November. The rate of unemployment was 8.1 per cent, i.e. 0.1 percentage points lower than one year before. Adjusted for seasonal variation, the unemployment rate was 8.7 per cent.
The unemployment rate for men fell by 0.2 percentage points to 8.1 per cent and that for women by 0.2 percentage points to 8.0 per cent. The unemployment rate among young people aged 15 to 24 went down by 3.8 percentage points to 16.0 per cent. Adjusted for seasonal variation, the unemployment rate for young people was 20.0 per cent. The rate of unemployment was lowest in the Province of Southern Finland, i.e. 6.5 per cent, and highest in the Province of Lapland, at 13.8 per cent. Among the industries, unemployment was highest in construction at 11.8 per cent.
According to the Labour Force Survey, the average number of employed persons in the January to November period of 2004 was 2,367,000, which is the same as in the corresponding period of last year. The number of unemployed persons was 232,000, or 5,000 lower than in the January to November period of 2003.
At the end of November 2004, there were altogether 276,000 persons registered, in accordance with the Unemployment Security Act and the Labour Exchange Office Regulations, as job seekers at the labour exchange offices. The number of job seekers was 2,000 lower than in November 2003. Unemployment increased from the previous year in the areas of four and continued to decrease in the areas of eleven Employment and Economic Development Centres. The number of persons covered by employment policy measures was the same as in November 2003, being 3.8 per cent of the labour force. There were 29,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25 registered at the labour exchange offices. Their number was 2,000 lower than in November 2003. During this November, 22,000 new vacancies were reported to the labour exchange offices, which is 4,000 more than in last year's November.
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.
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 ± 0.6 percentage points. The confidence interval for the number of unemployed is approximately ± 15,000 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
Email: tyovoima.tilastokeskus@stat.fi
Ministry of Labour: Mr Oiva Lönnberg +358 9 1604 8048
Latest seasonally adjusted unemployment figures published by the EU
at: http://epp.eurostat.cec.eu.int/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/3-01122004-AP/EN/3-01122004-AP-EN.PDF