Every tenth employed person was of foreign origin in 2024

People with foreign background in the labour market in 2021 to 2024

This review of the Labour Force Survey includes statistical data on the employment of the population with foreign background. This review examines changes in the labour market position of the population of foreign origin aged 20 to 64 years, especially between 2021 and 2024.

This review focuses on the population with foreign background, while similar data are also presented for the population with Finnish background for comparison. People with foreign background or of foreign origin means persons both of whose parents or the only known parent were born outside Finland. In contrast, people of Finnish origin have at least one parent born in Finland.

Population with foreign background increased

According to the statistics on population structure, 11 per cent of the entire Finnish population and 12 per cent of the 20 to 64 age group were of foreign origin in 2024. The population with foreign background has increased steadily in the 2000s. The population with foreign background is on average younger than the population with Finnish background. The majority of people with foreign background living in Finland have moved to the country at an optimal working age.

The demographic dependency ratio improves when the working-age population grows, while the economic dependency ratio can only improve if the share of people employed also increases. In addition, employment can be considered one of the indicators of success in integration. It is therefore also important to examine the labour market status by origin.

Examined by origin, the increase in the number of people employed in the 2000s has mainly consisted of an increase in the number of employed people with foreign background. The number of employed people with foreign background has also increased in the last couple of years, with the number of employed people with Finnish background starting to decline.

The following figure shows the number of people aged 20 to 64 by both origin and labour market status in the Labour Force Survey in 2024. The bar chart, on the other hand, shows the division of the population of foreign and Finnish origin into employed, unemployed and inactive people by sex. The inactive population includes students, pensioners and those caring for their own children.

The majority of the population in Finland aged 20 to 64 was employed in 2024, although those with foreign background – especially women – less than those with Finnish background. Unemployment among people with foreign background was more common than among people with Finnish background. For women with foreign background, the high share of inactive people was prominent compared to other groups. More than one in four of them were inactive.

The labour market status of the population aged 20 to 64 by origin is discussed next.

Employment rate growth stopped due to the downturn

The employment rate of people with foreign background increased from 2016 to 2022, with the exception of a small decline for women in 2021, possibly caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The increase in employment was particularly pronounced for women with foreign background, only about half of whom were employed in 2016. In 2022, their employment rate was 67 per cent.

However, the long-term increase in the employment rate of people with foreign background started to fall in 2023 in conjunction with the economic downturn. For people with Finnish background, the change in the employment rate took place a year later and at a milder pace.

Despite this decline in the employment rate, the number of employed people of foreign origin and their share of the population aged 20 to 64 also continued to grow during 2023 and 2024. The share of people with foreign background of all employed persons aged 20 to 64 has increased from four to ten percent between 2010 and 2024.

The employment rate by origin and sex in four age groups in 2024 is examined next.

The employment rates of people with foreign background are lower in all age groups than those of people with Finnish background. For women, the difference is significantly larger than for men. The employment rate is usually lowest between the ages of 20 and 29, regardless of origin or sex, as some people in this age group are still studying.

The employment rate of women with foreign background aged 20 to 29 was very low in 2024 (51%), but it was already 10 percentage points higher among those aged 30 to 39. The employment rate of women with foreign background is at its highest (64%) in the 40 to 49 age group, and only slightly lower in the 50 to 64 age group.

The employment rates of men with foreign background are higher in all age groups than of women with foreign background, whose employment rate, even at its highest, is at the same level as for men aged 20 to 29. In 2024, the employment rate of men with foreign background was highest in the 30 to 39 age group (77%). In the oldest age group, their employment rate was 70 per cent.

Next figure shows employment rates by background country group. The background country is determined based on the country of birth data of a person’s parents. If the parents were born in different countries, the background country of the person is determined by the mother’s country of birth. Due to the size of the dataset, it is impossible to examine individual background countries, with the exception of Estonia, and background countries have therefore been grouped here based on the countries’ geographical location or similarity of the socio-economic structure. The group ‘Other’ includes countries in Latin America and Oceania, as well as Eastern European countries that are not members of the European Union.

In 2024, the employment rate was highest (81%) in the group of the EU, EFTA and North America. Correspondingly, it was lowest in the Middle East and North Africa (53%). The highest changes between 2021 and 2024 were seen in men with Estonian background, whose employment rate decreased, and in women from sub-Saharan Africa, whose employment rate rose significantly.

Human health and social work activities and manufacturing are the largest employers in Finland

The industry of human health and social work activities is the largest employer in Finland. This also applies to people with foreign background: almost every sixth (16.0 per cent) employed person with foreign background worked in the field in 2024.

Other key employers of people with foreign background in 2024 were manufacturing (12%), trade (8%), administrative and support service activities, including cleaning and property maintenance (11%), information and communication, including the IT sector (9%), and accommodation and food service activities (10%).

Human health and social work activities (18%) and manufacturing (13%) were also the largest employers of people with Finnish background in 2024. The wholesale and retail trade industry was third, employing 11 per cent of employed persons of Finnish origin.

Information and communication (J) has quickly become one of the key employers of people with foreign background. In 2024, nine per cent of people with foreign background were employed in this industry, compared to seven per cent in 2021. For people with Finnish background, the corresponding share was five per cent in both 2021 and 2024.

In 2024, however, there were still several industries that employed very few people with foreign background: agriculture and forestry (A, B), electricity, gas, steam, water supply, sewerage and waste management (D, E), financial and insurance activities, as well as real estate activities (K, L), public administration and defence, and compulsory social insurance (O), as well as arts, entertainment and recreation (R). Each of these industries employed a maximum of one per cent of employed persons with foreign background. However, these industries were also quite modest employers among people with Finnish background.

When examined based on the background, it can be seen that human health and social work activities was the most important employer in most background country groups. It played a particularly large role in the group of sub-Saharan Africa: about a third of this group’s employed people worked in human health and social work activities.

However, the construction industry became the largest employer in the group of people with Estonian background, and manufacturing employed more people than other industries in the group of the EU, EFTA and North America. In these last two groups of background countries, human health and social work activities were only the second largest employer.

One in four persons of foreign origin employed in accommodation and food service activities

In 2024, one in ten of all employed persons aged 20 to 64 living in Finland had a foreign background. The share of employed persons of foreign origin of all employed in the industry is particularly high in accommodation and food service activities (I). In 2024, altogether 29 per cent of all employed people aged 20 to 64 in that industry were already of foreign origin, compared to 23 per cent in 2021.

In administrative and support services, the share of persons with foreign background had also increased to over a fifth (22%) of the employed. In 2021, the corresponding share was 17 per cent. In information and communication, growth has also been rapid in recent years: the share of the population with foreign background of all people employed in the industry increased from 11 per cent in 2021 to a maximum of 18 per cent in 2023, from which it decreased to 16 per cent in 2024.

In human health and social work activities, as well as in manufacturing, the share of people with foreign background of all people employed in the industry was nine per cent in 2024.

Differences in socio-economic group by origin and background country

The socio-economic group inferred based on the occupation and occupational position of employed persons varies according to their origin. In 2024, the share of upper-level salaried employees of all employed persons was higher among people with Finnish background (29 per cent) than those with foreign background (24 per cent). Respectively, people with foreign background were more often employees in worker occupations than those with Finnish background.

Up to 12 per cent of those with foreign background who have completed a tertiary level degree, but only three per cent of those with Finnish background, worked as employees in worker occupations according to the 2024 Labour Force Survey. Indeed, the difference is probably even greater because a large share of people with foreign background do not have data in the Labour Force Survey on qualifications completed. People with foreign background feel that they are in an occupation that is below their competence level and does not correspond to their education more often than people with Finnish background. For example, a highly educated immigrant may end up working as a cleaner. (Baumgartner 2023.)

The share of employees in worker occupations of all employed people with foreign background increased from 2023 to 2024, while the share of upper-level salaried employees decreased. In 2024, thirty-nine per cent of employed people with foreign background were employed in worker occupations, compared to 35 per cent in 2021. Of those with Finnish background, 24 per cent were employed in worker occupations in both 2021 and 2024.

The socio-economic group of the employed shows significant variation by background country. The share of upper-level salaried employees is highest in the group of the EU, EFTA and North America. The group of people with Estonian background has more people employed in worker occupations than other groups. The share of entrepreneurs is highest among people from sub-Saharan Africa or Russia and the former Soviet Union (excluding the Baltic countries and Ukraine).

Entrepreneurship is almost as common regardless of origin, differences in structure

In 2024, altogether 12 per cent of employed people with foreign background aged 20 to 64 and 11 per cent of those with Finnish background were entrepreneurs. Family members of entrepreneurs are not regarded here as entrepreneurs; they accounted for under one percentage point of people employed in 2024. Women accounted for about a third of entrepreneurs among both people with Finnish background (32 per cent) and those with foreign background (33 per cent) in 2024.

In Finland, the number of entrepreneurs and their share of the employed has generally decreased since 2021, when 13 per cent of all employed persons aged 20 to 64 were entrepreneurs. In 2024, the corresponding share was only 11 per cent.

The share of entrepreneurs with foreign background had fallen from 15 per cent in 2021 to 12 per cent in 2024, and the share of those with Finnish background from 13 to 11 per cent. The decrease in the share of entrepreneurs with foreign background is less due to the decrease in the number of entrepreneurs, but rather due to the number of employed persons with foreign background and therefore the number of employed persons with foreign background having increased significantly during the same period, by about 50,000 people.

There are differences in the structure of entrepreneurs by origin. The share of employer entrepreneurs with foreign background was over a fifth (22 per cent), and the share of sole entrepreneurs was 77 per cent of all entrepreneurs. Among entrepreneurs with foreign background, there were hardly any agricultural entrepreneurs.

Of entrepreneurs with Finnish background aged 20 to 64, eighteen per cent were agricultural entrepreneurs, and one in four (25 per cent) were employer entrepreneurs in 2024. Of all entrepreneurs with Finnish background, 57 per cent worked as sole entrepreneurs, self-employed persons, freelancers or grant recipients.

Entrepreneurs with foreign background were primarily engaged in the industries of transport and storage (H), and accommodation and food service activities (I), as well as professional, scientific and technical activities (M), construction (F), and information and communication (J). These five industries accounted for about 60 per cent of entrepreneurs with foreign background in 2024.

Following agriculture and forestry (AB), the industries of construction (F), professional, scientific and technical activities (M), and trade (G) stood out in the business activities of entrepreneurs with Finnish background. More than half of entrepreneurs with Finnish background worked in these four industries in 2024.

Currently, the Labour Force Survey does not regularly collect data on such new forms of employment as digital platform work and light entrepreneurship. However, based on separate studies, it is known that both light entrepreneurship (Raijas 2023) and platform-mediated work (Pärnänen 2023) are more common among people with foreign background than those with Finnish background.

Differences by origin in the occupational structure as well

In addition to differences in the socio-economic and industry structure, there are also differences in the occupational structure between those with foreign background and those with Finnish background. The occupational distribution is examined here at a 1-digit level of Statistics Finland’s 2010 Classification of Occupations.

In 2024, twenty-five per cent of employed people with foreign background aged 20 to 64 worked in professional occupations. The share of professionals among those with foreign background increased from the 2021 level to a maximum of 29 per cent in 2023, whereas in 2024 the share had returned to the 2021 level of 25 per cent.

Every tenth (ten per cent) employed person with foreign background worked in a professional occupation in 2024. For people with Finnish background, the corresponding share was 20 per cent. The shares were roughly the same in 2021. The share of clerical support workers was also lower for those with foreign background than for those with Finnish background in 2024.

People with foreign background worked more often than those with Finnish background in service and sales occupations (23 per cent of those with foreign background vs 18 per cent of those with Finnish background) and especially in the category ‘elementary occupations’ (17 per cent of those with foreign background vs five per cent of those with Finnish background) in 2024. This latter class includes cleaners, food preparation assistants, and assisting manufacturing and construction workers.

The share of people working in these occupational groups of all employed people with foreign background increased between 2021 and 2024. The share of service and sales workers of all employed people with foreign background increased during this period from 21 to 23 per cent, and the share of ‘elementary occupations’ from 14 to 17 per cent, respectively. For people with Finnish background, the corresponding shares remained unchanged.

Four per cent of people with Finnish background belonged to the occupational group of managers, and three per cent to agricultural workers. People with foreign background belonged to these groups even more rarely.

Most common occupations by sex and origin

Examined by sex, differences can be seen especially in the share of professionals. Women with foreign background worked as professionals less often (23 per cent) than women with Finnish background (29 per cent). The corresponding figures for men were 28 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively.

A more detailed examination of the occupational structure at a 2-digit level reveals more about the differences between people with Finnish and foreign background. A larger share of people with foreign background than those with Finnish background worked as information and communications technology professionals or science and engineering professionals in 2024. Correspondingly, fewer people with foreign background than those with Finnish background worked as teaching professionals, business and administration professionals, or as legal, social and cultural professionals (e.g. social workers, lawyers, journalists). The share of health professionals – mainly doctors – of all people employed was roughly the same both among people with foreign and Finnish background.

In addition to the occupations of information and communications technology professionals, as well as science and engineering professionals, the occupations of service workers (e.g. waiters) and especially cleaners were significantly more common among those with foreign background than those with Finnish background. Similarly, it was also more common for people with foreign background than those with Finnish background to work as personal care workers (e.g. health care assistants), construction workers, transport workers, and food preparation assistants.

Table presents the most common occupations of employed persons aged 20 to 64 at a 2-digit level of the Classification of Occupations by origin and sex in 2024.

Part-time work among people with foreign background is often caused by lack of full-time work

Employees with foreign background work more often in atypical employment relationships than employees with Finnish background. In other words, the employment relationships of employees with foreign background are more often fixed-term, part-time, temporary agency or zero-hour contract workers than the employment relationships of employees with Finnish background.

The shares of atypical employment relationships by origin in 2024 are presented in table. The categories are not mutually exclusive, as a fixed-term employee’s employment relationship can also be a part-time or temporary agency relationship, or even both.

The share of fixed-term employees had decreased by one percentage point from 2021 for persons with Finnish background but remained unchanged for persons with foreign background. In 2024, altogether 27 per cent of female employees and 19 per cent of male employees with foreign background were employed on a fixed-term basis, compared to 16 per cent of women and 11 per cent of men with Finnish background.

In 2024, twenty per cent of employees with foreign background and 15 per cent of employees with Finnish background worked part-time. The shares were the same as in 2021. In addition, 25 per cent of female employees and 17 per cent of male employees with foreign background worked part-time. For people with Finnish background, the corresponding figures were 20 and 9 per cent, respectively.

For employees with foreign background working part-time, the most common reason (43%) for part-time employment was that full-time work was unavailable. More than a quarter (26%) of employed persons with Finnish background working part-time mentioned the lack of full-time work as the reason for their part-time employment. The lack of full-time work as a reason for working part-time was less common in 2024 than in 2021 in both origin groups.

Part-time employees with Finnish background were significantly more likely to work part-time (26%) voluntarily than those with foreign background (14%). Health reasons were also a more common reason for people with Finnish background to reduce their working hours than for people with foreign background. In contrast, part-time work due to studies was slightly more common for employees with foreign background (30%) than for employees with Finnish background (26 per cent).

Under 10 per cent of employees with foreign and Finnish background working part-time had reduced their working hours because they were caring for their own children or other relatives.

The prevalence of involuntary part-time work can also be measured as a share of all people employed, not only as the share of part-time workers. In 2024, the share of employees working part-time in the absence of full-time work of all people employed had decreased slightly from 2021. In 2024, a total of eight per cent of employees with foreign background and four per cent of employees with Finnish background were in part-time paid employment due to the lack of full-time work, compared to 10 and 5 per cent in 2021.

More unemployed people with foreign background than before

The unemployment rate in the population with foreign background aged 20 to 64 fell after the coronavirus pandemic, reaching a low of 11.5 per cent in 2022. When the downturn began in 2023, the unemployment rate of people with foreign background rose sharply to 16.7 per cent in 2024. The unemployment rate of people with Finnish background aged 20 to 64 rose less and was significantly lower than for those with foreign background at 6.6 per cent in 2024. It is noteworthy that the unemployment rates reported here describe the 20 to 64 age group, not 15 to 74, as the official unemployment rate usually published in the Labour Force Survey.

In 2024, therefore, the unemployment rate of the population with foreign background aged 20 to 64 was significantly higher than that of people with Finnish background in the same age group. However, the differences between women were larger than between men. The unemployment rate of women with foreign background was higher (17.7%) than that of men in the same group (15.7%), whereas women with Finnish background, in contrast, had a lower unemployment rate (5.4%) than men (7.8%).

Those non-employed who had previously worked were asked to provide a reason for the end of their employment. Dismissals or layoffs were slightly more common among people with foreign background, but the termination of a fixed-term employment relationship was in turn more common among people with Finnish background. The termination of work due to family reasons was more common among people with foreign background (8%) than among people with Finnish background (3%). Due to illness or pension, work had ended more often among persons with Finnish background than those with foreign background. Other reasons excluded from the listed reasons caused the termination of the employment relationship for 14 per cent of persons with Finnish background, but up to 24 per cent of persons with foreign background.

When the employment rate was at its highest in 2022 and 2023, the good employment situation was particularly visible among women with foreign background. This was reflected in both a decrease in unemployment and a fall in the number and share of inactive people in the working age population.

Share of inactive people almost unchanged

In the Labour Force Survey, the inactive population means persons who were not employed or unemployed during the survey week. In 2024, there were about 531,000 inactive people among the population aged 20 to 64, or 17 per cent. Of those with foreign background, 82,000 (21%) were inactive, while the corresponding figure was 449,000 (16%) among people with Finnish background.

The Labour Force Survey also asks respondents’ own views of their main activities during the survey week. In 2024, inactive people with foreign background most commonly reported being students (31%), unemployed (23%), caring for their own household (14%), or a long-term illness or disability (11%). For people with Finnish background, studies (23%) and self-reported unemployment (14%) were also common reasons, although slightly less common than for those with foreign background. However, the most common reason for people with Finnish background being inactive was a long-term illness or disability (29%). A large share of those with Finnish background had also retired (19%), which was very rare in the - younger on average - population with foreign background.

Compared to 2021, the share of students in the inactive population had decreased among people with foreign background in 2024 and the share of self-reported unemployed had slightly increased. For people with Finnish background, the most significant change was that the share of people with a long-term illness or disability had increased by seven percentage points, and the share of retired people had decreased by five percentage points.

Labour Force Survey as a data source

The Labour Force Survey is a sample survey based on which estimates of key labour market figures are presented. The Labour Force Survey’s questionnaire also identifies data that are unavailable in registers in relation to the quality of working life, for example. In addition, data obtained from the questionnaire can be published more quickly than many register-based data that show a longer delay.

The data presented in this review are based on data obtained from the Labour Force Survey through telephone interviews and online responses. The languages used in data collection were Finnish, Swedish and English, which may have limited the number of respondents. Reliability has been improved through statistical weighting. Although the weights cannot take all the possible characteristics of the respondents into account, the results give a good overview of the development of the employment of the population with foreign background.

The concept of employed persons used in the Labour Force Survey comply with the recommendations of the International Labour Organization (ILO) of the UN, and the European Union’s regulations on official statistics. The time series in this review mainly start from 2021, when the Labour Force Survey was updated.

Data on origin are based on the register data of Statistics Finland’s Population Information System. Some persons with foreign background do not have register data on their parents’ country of birth. For this review, such missing data have been supplemented with other data, including data on the person’s country of birth and language. Thus, the results of this review have been slightly specified compared to the data previously published in the Labour Force Survey.

Literature

Baumgartner, Tarja (2024) Ulkomaalaistaustaisten työllisyyden kasvu pysähtyi vuonna 2023 (Increase in the employment of people with foreign background stopped in 2023) (in Finnish), Tieto&trendit, Statistics Finland

Baumgartner, Tarja (2023) Maahanmuuttajien osaamista jää käyttämättä työmarkkinoilla (Immigrants’ skills not fully used in the labour market) (in Finnish), Tieto&trendit, Statistics Finland

Baumgartner, Tarja & Raijas, Meri (2023) Maahanmuuttajanaisten työllisyys parani (Employment of immigrant women improved) (in Finnish), Tieto&trendit, Statistics Finland

Eurostat (2023) Foreign-born people and their descendants – labour market conditions

Leskinen, Tatu & Hannula, Ulla (2023) Entistä useampi tekee vuokratyötä – työntekijöistä kolmasosa nuoria ja neljäsosa ulkomaalaistaustaisia (More employment agency workers than before – a third of employees young and a quarter with foreign background) (in Finnish), Tieto&trendit, Statistics Finland

Pasila, Aura & Sutela, Hanna (2019) Ulkomaalaistaustaisten työllisyysaste eroaa rekisteri- ja haastattelupohjaisissa tilastoissa (Employment rate of people with foreign background differs in register-based and interview-based statistics) (in Finnish), Tieto&trendit, Statistics Finland

Pärnänen, Anna (2023) Alustatyö on yhä vähäistä mutta ulkomaalaistaustaisten keskuudessa suosittua (Platform work remains a minor activity, while being popular among people with foreign background) (in Finnish), Tieto&trendit, Statistics Finland

Raijas, Meri (2023) Kevytyrittäjyys yleistyy vauhdilla – paljon nuoria miehiä, viidennes ulkomaalaisia (Light entrepreneurship is increasing fast – many young men, a fifth with foreign background) (in Finnish), Tieto&trendit, Statistics Finland

Sutela, Hanna (2023) Maahanmuuttajien työllisyys Suomessa yli EU-keskitason – työmarkkina-asema heikompi kuin suomalaistaustaisilla (Immigrants’ employment in Finland above the EU average – labour market position weaker than among people with Finnish background) (in Finnish), Tieto&trendit, Statistics Finland

Sutela, Hanna (2024) Millaisia töitä ulkomaalaistaustaiset tekevät?IT-ala noussut yhdeksi keskeisistä työllistäjistä (What work do people with foreign background do? The IT sector has become one of the key employers) (in Finnish), Tieto&trendit, Statistics Finland