Employment improved in January

There were 60,000 more jobs in January compared to the corresponding period of the year before, the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland indicates. Employment was improved by the increase in jobs in the metal industry and the consumer goods industry and in the group other industry. In the service sector, employment improved in education, research and social services in particular. In forestry and agriculture, on the other hand, employment declined.

Seasonally adjusted figures show a rise in employment by 3,000 and a fall in unemployment by 2,000 from December to January. January is one of the blackest months of the year as regards unemployment.

Unemployment stood at 438,000 in January, which is about 25,000 less than a year earlier. Unemployment did not decrease at the same rate as the number of employed grew, since the supply of labour increased simultaneously.

Changes in the labour force from January 1995 to January 1996,
1,000 persons

Changes in the labour force

The unemployment rate was 17.8 per cent in January. There were 35,000 more unemployed men than there were women. The unemployment rate of men fell by 1.5 percentage points to 18.4 per cent and that of women by about one percentage point to 17.2 per cent. Youth unemployment also declined slightly in a year.

Higher unemployment figures in the Ministry of Labour

The data of the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland are collected by interviewing monthly some 12,000 Finns of working age. 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 data to be published now are for the period 15-21 January.

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 December there were 471,500 unemployed persons in the Ministry of Labour's register of job applicants.

Source: Labour Force Survey 1996, January
Further Information: Tapio Oksanen, tel. +358 0 1734 3228,
Hannu Siitonen, tel. +358 0 1734 3225