Slow improvement in employment in July

The number of employed increased by 15 000 in the year to July, the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland indicates. Jobs increased both in processing industries and primary production, while in services the number of jobs decreased slightly due to fewer jobs in transport and communications.

The number of jobs for men increased by a good 10 000. Women's employment also improved slightly. The highest rise in the number of jobs was recorded for the province of Uusimaa.

Seasonally adjusted figures show a fall in employment by 3 000 from June to July.

Labour force

Unemployment stood at 421 000 in July, which is 40 000 less than a year earlier. The fall in unemployment was largely accounted for by the increase in the number of students on the year before. Unemployment amongst the young fell by 20 000 to 78 000 in one year. Seasonally adjusted unemployment declined by a few thousand from June to July.

There were 211 000 unemployed men and 210 000 unemployed women in July. The unemployment rate of women was down by 1.5 percentage points to 16.6 per cent and that of men by 1.3 percentage points to 15.2. The rate of unemployment for July was 15.9 per cent.

117 000 of those unemployed in July derived from government services, 65 000 from manufacturing and 44 000 from trade and commerce.

Higher unemployment figures in the Ministry of Labour

The data for the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland were collected by interviewing about 10 000 Finns of working age. The data relate to the period July 15-21. The Labour Force Survey is a panel survey based on a sample, in which the same person is surveyed five times over a period of eighteen months.

The Labour Force Survey provides data both on employment and unemployment. It is based on the recommendations of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and it is comparable with the corresponding statistics of other countries.

The Ministry of Labour also publishes statistics on unemployment. The data on unemployed job applicants are from the last working day of the month. Owing to differences in methods and definitions, the unemployment figures of Statistics Finland and the Ministry of Labour are not comparable. However, the figures generally change in a parallel manner so that the figures of the Ministry of Labour exceed those of Statistics Finland by a few tens of thousands. At the end of July there were 468 100 unemployed persons in the Ministry of Labour's register of job applicants.

When assessing the figures of the Labour Force Survey, the confidence interval, which is due to the standard error of the sample survey, also has to be taken into account. This interval was ± 0.8 percentage points in the unemployment rate in July.

Source: Labour Force Survey, July 1996. Statistics Finland
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Hannu Siitonen, tel. +358 0 1734 3225