Employment improved in October

The number of people in work rose by 16 000 in the year to October, the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland indicates. Vacancies increased by over 20 000 in the service sector, but fell slightly in processing industries.

The number of jobs for women increased, while men's employment remained at roughly the same level as in October of the year before. Seasonally adjusted figures show that the number of employed grew by four thousand from September to October.

Unemployment stood at 377 000 in October, which is 32 000 less than a year earlier. Out of those unemployed, 53 per cent were men and 47 per cent women. Seasonally adjusted unemployment decreased by five thousand from September to October

The unemployment rate was 15.3 per cent in October, down by 1.2 percentage points from October 1995. The unemployment rate of men fell by 1.1 percentage points to 15.5 per cent and that of women by 1.3 percentage points to 15.0 per cent.

Table

There were 57 000 unemployed young persons in October, bringing the rate of youth unemployment down to 25.0 per cent. A total of 9 per cent in the entire age group of 635 000 youths were unemployed.

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 October 14-20. 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 October there were 424 900 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 October.

Source: Labour Force Survey, October 1996. Statistics Finland
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Hannu Siitonen, tel. +358 9 1734 3225