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

More employed women and fewer employed men than one year ago

In September 2026, the number of employed persons aged 15 to 74 was 2,578,000 (margin of error ±33,000), which was 11,000 fewer than one year earlier. There were 59,000 fewer employed men and 48,000 more employed women than in September last year.

In September, the non-seasonally adjusted employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 20 to 64, stood at 75.1 per cent, having been 75.9 per cent in this age group one year earlier. The employment rate of men aged 20 to 64 fell by 2.5 percentage points to 74.7 per cent and the employment rate of women grew by 1.0 percentage points to 75.5 per cent from one year ago.

The employment rate of persons aged 20 to 69 fell by 0.8 percentage points from last year's September to 70.1 per cent.

Unemployment grew compared to the previous year

In September 2026, the number of unemployed persons aged 15 to 74 was 298,000 (margin of error ±24,000), which was 39,000 more than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 159,000 and that of unemployed women 139,000.

In September, 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 9.1 per cent one year earlier. The unemployment rate of men stood at 10.9 per cent, which was 1.4 percentage points higher than one year before. The unemployment rate of women stood at 9.8 per cent, which was 1.1 percentage points higher than in the previous year.

In September, the share of the unemployed aged 15 to 24 among the labour force stood at 22.0 per cent, which was 5.4 percentage points higher than one year earlier. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 23.5 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 10.8 per cent.

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

There were 1,293,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in September 2026, which was 27,000 fewer than one year earlier. There were 41,000 more men and 68,000 fewer 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