Unemployment down to 370 000, employment unchanged

Unemployment was down to less than 400 000 for the first time since December 1992, the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland indicates. In September there was a total of 370 000 unemployed, which is 36 000 less than the year before.

The number of unemployed men fell by nearly 30 000 and that of unemployed women by close to 10 000. The main reason for the decline in men's unemployment was that some of them left the labour force. This was reflected in the increased number of male students, up by over 20 000, compared to the previous year.

The unemployment rate was 15.1 per cent in September, a drop of 1.3 percentage points on a year earlier. The unemployment rate of men fell by 1.7 percentage points to 14.7 and that of women by 0.8 percentage points to 15.5 per cent. Seasonally adjusted unemployment decreased by four thousand from August to September.

Table

94 000 of those unemployed in September derived from government and other services, and 54 000 from manufacturing. The rate of unemployment in construction was 20.8 per cent.

Unemployment amongst the young fell by 15 000 on the year before. The number of unemployed under-25-year-olds amounted to 55 000 in September.

There was only a slight increase in the number of employed in September compared to September 1995. Vacancies rose in the service sector, but fell in processing industries and in primary production in particular.

Women's employment improved by over 10 000 from September 1995, while that of men declined somewhat.

Seasonally adjusted figures show a rise in employment by three thousand from August to September.

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 September 9-15. 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 September there were 426 700 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 September.

Source: Labour Force Survey, September 1996. Statistics Finland
Further Information: Tapio Oksanen, tel. +358 9 1734 3228, and Hannu Siitonen, tel. +358 9 1734 3225