Fewer employed persons and more unemployed persons in August 2024 compared to one year ago

Number of employed persons decreased from the previous year

In August 2024, the number of employed persons aged 15 to 74 was 2,617,000 (margin of error ±30,000), which was 46,000 fewer than a year earlier. There were 6,000 fewer employed men and 40,000 fewer employed women than in August of the previous year.

In August, the employment rate among persons aged 20 to 64, that is, the proportion of employed persons among the population of the same age, stood at 76.9 per cent, having been 78.9 per cent in this age group one year earlier. The employment rate of men aged 20 to 64 decreased by 1.6 percentage points to 77.2 per cent from the previous year, while that of women went down by 2.3 percentage points to 76.6 per cent.

The employment rate in the 20 to 69 age group declined by 1.3 percentage points to 71.6 per cent from August of the previous year.

Unemployment increased compared to the previous year

According to Statistics Finland's labour force survey, there were 214,000 (margin of error ±20,000) unemployed aged 15 to 74 in August 2024, which was 22,000 more than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 112,000 and that of unemployed women 101,000.

In August, the unemployment rate of persons aged 15 to 74, or the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force, stood at 7.5 per cent, having been 6.7 per cent one year earlier. The unemployment rate of men was 7.7 per cent, which was 0.2 percentage points higher than one year ago. The unemployment rate of women stood at 7.4 per cent, which was 1.5 percentage points higher than one year earlier.

In August, the proportion of the unemployed aged 15 to 24 among the labour force was 12.9 per cent, which was 1.9 percentage points higher compared to the previous year. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 18.0 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 6.4 per cent.

Number of people in the inactive population higher than one year ago

There were 1,321,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in August 2024, which was 45,000 more than one year earlier. There were 15,000 more men and 30,000 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)