Fewer employed persons and more unemployed persons in January 2026 compared to one year ago

Number of employed persons fell from the previous year

In January 2026, the number of employed persons aged 15 to 74 was 2,531,000 (margin of error ±29,000), which was 25,000 fewer than one year earlier. Compared to January last year, the number of employed men was 23,000 lower and the number of employed women was unchanged.

In January, the non-seasonally adjusted employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 20 to 64, stood at 74.8 per cent, having been 75.8 per cent in this age group one year earlier. The employment rate of men aged 20 to 64 fell by 1.8 percentage points to 74.1 per cent and the employment rate of women fell by 0.3 percentage points to 75.4 per cent from one year ago.

The employment rate of persons aged 20 to 69 fell by 1.1 percentage points from last year's January to 69.2 per cent.

Unemployment grew compared to the previous year

In January 2026, the number of unemployed persons aged 15 to 74 was 295,000 (margin of error ±23,000), which was 26,000 more than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 166,000 and that of unemployed women 129,000.

In January, the non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of persons aged 15 to 74, or the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force stood at 10.4 per cent, having been 9.5 per cent one year earlier. The unemployment rate of men stood at 11.5 per cent, which was 1.3 percentage points higher than one year before. The unemployment rate of women stood at 9.4 per cent, which was 0.6 percentage points higher than in the previous year.

In January, the share of the unemployed aged 15 to 24 among the labour force stood at 23.7 per cent, which was 3.6 percentage points higher than one year earlier. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 22.8 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 10.7 per cent.

More men in the inactive population than a year ago

There were 1,348,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in January 2026, which was 9,000 more than one year earlier. There were 11,000 more men and almost as many women in the inactive population compared to 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

KEHA Centre’s Employment Bulletin