Unemployment increased in the first quarter of 2024 compared to one year ago

release 24/04/2024 | Labour force survey 2024, 1st quarter

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, the number of employed persons in the first quarter of 2024 was 13,000 lower than in the corresponding quarter of 2023. There were 37,000 more unemployed persons.

Population aged 15 to 74 by labour force status in the first quarter of 2023 and 2024

	2023/Q1, 1000 persons	2024/Q1, 1000 persons	Change, 2023/Q1 - 2024/Q1, 1000 persons	Change, 2023/Q1 - 2024/Q1, %
Population total	4 124	4 147	23	0,6
Active population total	2 782	2 806	24	0,8
- employed	2 586	2 572	-13	-0,5
- unemployed	197	234	37	18,8
Inactive population	1 342	1 341	-1	-0,1

Key selections

The average number of employed persons in the first quarter of 2024 was 2,572,000, which was 13,000 fewer than in the corresponding period of 2023.
There were 6,000 fewer employed men and 8,000 fewer employed women than in the first quarter of 2023.
The number of employed persons increased most in human health and social work activities (Q) and decreased most in construction (F) and manufacturing (C).
In January to March 2024, the number of hours worked by employed persons decreased by 2.1 per cent from twelve months back.

Number of hours worked decreased

The average number of employed persons in the first quarter of 2024 was 2,572,000 (margin of error ±17 000), which was 13,000 fewer than in the corresponding period of 2023.

The number of hours worked by employed persons was 1,022.3 million hours in the first quarter of 2024, which was 2.1 per cent lower than a year ago.

In the first quarter of 2024, the number of employed persons increased most in human health and social work activities (Q) and decreased most in construction (F) and manufacturing (C) compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

Share of part-time employed grew

In the first quarter of 2024, the number of part-time employed persons was 495,000, which was 19.2 per cent of all employed persons. The share was 0.7 percentage points bigger than one year ago.

Altogether 116,000 or 23.5 per cent of them worked part-time because full-time work was not available. There were 15,000 more persons belonging to this group than in the corresponding period one year previously.

More unemployed persons than one year ago

The average number of unemployed persons in the first quarter of 2024 was 234,000 (margin of error ±12 000), which was 37,000 more than in January to March 2023. The unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2024 was 8.3 per cent, having been 7.1 per cent one year earlier.

In January to March 2024, the number of persons in the inactive population was 1,341,000, which was on level with one year earlier.