Number of employed and unemployed persons higher in May 2023 than one year ago

Number of employed persons grew from the year before

In May 2023, the number of employed aged 15 to 74 was 2,680,000 (margin of error ±33,000), which was 39,000 higher than a year earlier. There were 13,000 more employed men and 26,000 more employed women than in May 2022.

In May, the employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 20 to 64, stood at 79.5 per cent, having been 79.2 per cent in this age group one year earlier. Compared to May last year, the employment rate of men aged 20 to 64 fell by 0.4 percentage points to 79.7 per cent and that of women rose by 1.0 percentage points to 79.2 per cent.

The employment rate of people aged 20 to 69 was 73.5 per cent, having been 72.8 per cent in the year before.

More unemployed persons than one year ago

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 266,000 unemployed (margin of error ±27,000) aged 15 to 74 in May 2023, which was 40,000 higher than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 149,000 and that of women 117,000.

In May, the unemployment rate of persons aged 15 to 74, or the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force stood at 9.0 per cent, having been 7.9 per cent one year earlier. The unemployment rate of men stood at 9.8 per cent, which was 1.4 percentage points more than one year previously. Women's unemployment rate was 8.2 per cent, which was 0.9 percentage points more than one year earlier.

In May, the unemployment rate of people aged 15 to 24 stood at 27.4 per cent, which was 4.9 percentage points more than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 14.8 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 18.0 per cent.

Number of people in the inactive population decreased

There were 1,180,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in May 2023, which was 71,000 fewer 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

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 (PDF)