Unemployment rate higher in July 2024 than one year ago

Number of employed persons higher than one year ago

In July 2024, the number of employed aged 15 to 74 was 2,680,000 (margin of error ±30,000), which was 54,000 more than a year earlier. There were 49,000 more employed men and 5,000 more employed women than in July last year.

In July, the employment rate of persons aged 20 to 64, that is, the proportion of the employed among the population of the same age, stood at 77.4 per cent, having been 77.7 per cent one year earlier. The employment rate of men aged 20 to 64 rose by 0.7 percentage points to 78.4 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 rose by 0.4 percentage points from last year's July to 71.8 per cent.

Unemployment grew compared to the previous year

According to Statistics Finland's labour force survey, there were 229,000 unemployed (margin of error ±21,000) aged 15 to 74 in July 2024, which was 34,000 more than one year earlier. There were 137,000 unemployed men and 92,000 unemployed women.

In July, the unemployment rate of persons aged 15 to 74, or the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force stood at 7.9 per cent, having been 6.9 per cent one year earlier. The unemployment rate of men stood at 9.0 per cent, which was 1.8 percentage points more than one year previously. The unemployment rate of women was 6.7 per cent, which was the same as one year before.

In July, the share of the unemployed aged 15 to 24 among the labour force stood at 11.5 per cent, which was 0.6 percentage points lower than one year earlier. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 17.7 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 7.3 per cent.

Inactive population smaller than one year ago

There were 1,241,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in July 2024, which was 66,000 fewer than one year earlier. There were 71,000 fewer men and 5,000 more women in the inactive population 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. For that reason, 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)