Labour force survey 2026, 3rd quarter

Number of unemployed persons grew in the third quarter of 2026 compared to one year ago

20/10/2026 release

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, the number of employed persons aged 15 to 74 was 7,000 higher in the third quarter of 2026 than in the corresponding quarter of 2025. There were 18,000 more unemployed persons in the same age group.

Population aged 15 to 74 by labour force status in the third quarter of 2025 and 2026

	2025/Q3, 1000 persons	2026/Q3, 1000 persons	Change, 2025/Q3 - 2026/Q3, 1000 persons	Change, 2025/Q3 - 2026/Q3, %
Population total	4 166	4 167	1	0,0
Active population total	2 874	2 899	25	0,9
- employed	2 609	2 616	7	0,3
- unemployed	265	283	18	6,8
Inactive population	1 292	1 268	-24	-1,9

Key selections

The average number of employed persons in the third quarter of 2026 was 2,616,000, which was 7,000 more than in the corresponding period of 2025.
There were 10,000 fewer employed men and 17,000 more employed women than in the third quarter of 2025.
The number of employed persons decreased most in manufacturing (C) and increased most in public administration and defence (O) and arts, entertainment and recreation (R).
In July to September 2026, the number of hours worked by employed persons decreased by 1.8 per cent from the previous year.

Number of employed persons grew slightly from the previous year

In the third quarter of 2026, the average number of employed persons aged 15 to 74 was 2,616,000 (margin of error ±19,000), which was 7,000 more than in the corresponding period of 2025.

The number of hours worked by employed persons was 946.9 million hours in the third quarter of 2026, which was 1.8 per cent lower than one year ago.

In the third quarter of 2026, the number of employed persons decreased most in manufacturing (C) and increased most in public administration and defence (O) and arts, entertainment and recreation (R) compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

Share of part-time employed increased

In the third quarter of 2026, the number of part-time employed persons was 499,000, which was 19.1 per cent of all employed persons. The share was 0.8 percentage points higher than in the year before.

Altogether 167,000 or 33.5 per cent of them worked part-time because full-time work was not available. There were 37,000 more persons belonging to this group than in the corresponding period one year before.

More unemployed persons than one year ago

The average number of unemployed persons aged 15 to 74 in the third quarter of 2026 was 283,000 (margin of error ±14,000), which was 18,000 more than in July to September 2025. The unemployment rate in the third quarter of 2026 was 9.8 per cent, having been 9.2 per cent one year earlier.

In July to September 2026, the number of persons in the inactive population was 1,268,000, which was 24,000 fewer than one year earlier.