Number of employed persons slightly higher, number of unemployed persons unchanged in December 2022 compared to one year earlier

Number of employed women grew, the number of men fell

In December 2022, the number of employed aged 15 to 74 was 2,605,000 (margin of error ±33,000), which was 10,000 higher than a year earlier. There were 36,000 fewer employed men and 46,000 more employed women than in December 2021.

In December 2022, the employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 73.4 per cent, having been 73.3 per cent one year earlier. Compared to December 2021, the employment rate of men aged 15 to 64 fell by 1.6 percentage points to 72.1 per cent and that of women rose by 1.8 percentage points to 74.8 per cent. The employment rate of people aged 20 to 69 was 71.9 per cent in December 2022, having been 71.5 per cent in the year before.

Number of unemployed persons unchanged from one year ago

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 187,000 unemployed (margin of error ±24,000) aged 15 to 74 in December 2022, which was the same as one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 109,000 and that of women 78,000.

In December, the unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 74, that is, the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force, stood at 6.7 per cent, which was the same as one year previously. Men's unemployment rate was 7.7 per cent, having been 7.2 per cent one year ago. Women's unemployment rate was 5.7 per cent, while it was 6.2 per cent one year earlier.

In December, the unemployment rate of people aged 15 to 24 stood at 16.1 per cent, which was 5.6 percentage points more than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 15.9 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 8.0 per cent.

Number of people in the inactive population decreased

There were 1,331,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in December 2022, which was 9,000 fewer than one year earlier. There were 35,000 more men in the inactive population, while the figure for women was 44,000 lower 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.