Employment increased further in May 2022 compared to one year ago

Employed and employment rate

In May 2022, the number of employed persons was 2,641,000 (margin of error ±34,000), which was 61,000 more than a year earlier. There were 21,000 more employed men and 40,000 more employed women than in May 2021.

In May, the employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 74.7 per cent, having been 73.0 per cent one year earlier. From the previous year’s May, the employment rate of men aged 15 to 64 rose by 1.6 percentage points to 75.3 per cent and that of women went up by 1.7 percentage points to 74.1 per cent. The employment rate of people aged 20 to 69 was 72.8 per cent, having been 71.1 per cent in the year before.

Unemployed and unemployment rate

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 227,000 unemployed in May 2022 (margin of error ±26,000), i.e. 68,000 fewer than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 125,000 and that of women 101,000.

In May, the unemployment rate, the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force stood at 7.9 per cent, having been 10.3 per cent one year earlier. From the previous year’s May, men’s unemployment rate fell by 2.7 percentage points to 8.4 per cent and women’s by 1.9 percentage points to 7.3 per cent.

In May, the unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 24 stood at 22.6 per cent, which was 8.7 percentage points lower than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 10.9 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 13.5 per cent.

Inactive population

There were 1,251,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in May 2022, which was 3,000 more than one year earlier.

Seasonally adjusted trend

Employment and unemployment vary quite much by month and the change from the observation of the previous month mainly describes the seasonal aspect rather than the trend in development. Thus, the latest statistical data are compared to the corresponding period of the year before. By contrast, the figures of the trend series that are adjusted for seasonal and random variation are mutually comparable and phenomena associated with long-term development and cyclical changes are thus more easily observable from the trend of the time series.

The trend usually changes somewhat when the data of the following month are included in the time series. Therefore, only the last published time series should be used when using the trend figures. The preliminary nature of the latest trend figures should be considered when making conclusions. The fall in employment in spring 2020 was interpreted as a level shift in the seasonal adjustment model. The figures reported in this release are not adjusted for seasonal variation unless separately mentioned that they concern the trend.

Links

Review of estimation method of the Labour Force Survey from the beginning of 2021

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment’s Employment bulletin

Comparison between the employment statistics of Statistics Finland and the Ministry of
Economic Affairs and Employment