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

Number of employed persons fell from the previous year

In May 2026, the number of employed persons aged 15 to 74 was 2,594,000 (margin of error ±31,000), which was 32,000 fewer than one year earlier. There were 6,000 fewer employed men and 26,000 fewer employed women than in May last year.

In May, the non-seasonally adjusted employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 20 to 64, stood at 76.5 per cent, having been 77.0 per cent in this age group one year earlier. The employment rate of men aged 20 to 64 grew by 0.1 percentage points to 77.6 per cent and the employment rate of women fell by 1.2 percentage points to 75.3 per cent from one year ago.

The employment rate of persons aged 20 to 69 fell by 0.5 percentage points from last year's May to 71.1 per cent.

Unemployment grew compared to the previous year

In May 2026, the number of unemployed persons aged 15 to 74 was 376,000 (margin of error ±28,000), which was 68,000 more than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 203,000 and that of unemployed women 173,000.

In May, the non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of persons aged 15 to 74, or the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force stood at 12.7 per cent, having been 10.5 per cent one year earlier. The unemployment rate of men stood at 13.1 per cent, which was 2.3 percentage points higher than one year before. The unemployment rate of women stood at 12.2 per cent, which was 2.0 percentage points higher than in the previous year.

In May, the share of the unemployed aged 15 to 24 among the labour force stood at 37.8 per cent, which was 9.7 percentage points higher than one year earlier. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 23.2 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 24.1 per cent.

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

There were 1,196,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in May 2026, which was 36,000 fewer than one year earlier. There were 34,000 fewer men and almost as many 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

KEHA Centre’s Employment Bulletin