Number of employed persons decreased and unemployment grew in October 2023 from one year ago

Employment rate fell from one year ago

In October 2023, the number of employed aged 15 to 74 was 2,605,000 (margin of error ±30,000), which was 31,000 fewer than a year earlier. There were 27,000 fewer employed men and 4,000 fewer employed women than in October last year.

In October, the employment rate of persons aged 20 to 64, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 20 to 64, stood at 77.4 per cent, having been 78.9 per cent in this age group one year earlier. The employment rate of men aged 20 to 64 fell by 1.9 percentage points to 78.2 per cent and that of women fell by 1.3 percentage points to 76.5 per cent compared to one year ago.

The employment rate of persons aged 20 to 69 fell by 1.2 percentage points from last year's October to 71.7 per cent.

Unemployment rate rose for both men and women

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 190,000 unemployed (margin of error ±20,000) aged 15 to 74 in October 2023, which was 28,000 more than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 101,000 and that of unemployed women 89,000.

In October, the unemployment rate of persons aged 15 to 74, that is, the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force, stood at 6.8 per cent, which was 1.0 percentage points higher than one year previously. Men's unemployment rate was 6.9 per cent and women's 6.6 per cent, which were both 1.0 percentage points higher than one year before.

In October, the unemployment rate of people aged 15 to 24 stood at 16.7 per cent, which was 6.9 percentage points more than one year ago. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 17.6 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 7.7 per cent.

Number of people in the inactive population grew

There were 1,343,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in October 2023, which was 21,000 more than one year earlier.

Seasonally adjusted trend

Employment and unemployment vary quite considerably 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)