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Published: 25 September 2018

Employment increased in August from one year ago

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, the number of employed people was 64,000 higher in August 2018 than one year ago. The number of unemployed persons was 186,000, which was 16,000 lower than one year ago. The trend of the unemployment rate was 7.5 per cent and the trend of the employment rate 71.8 per cent.

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2008/08–2018/08, persons aged 15–64

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2008/08–2018/08, persons aged 15–64

Unemployment and employment vary quite considerably by month and the change from the observation of the previous month mainly describes the seasonal aspect rather than the trend in development. Thus, 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. This preliminary nature of trend figures should be taken into account when making conclusions. The figures reported in this release are not adjusted for seasonal variation unless separately mentioned that they concern the trend. You can read more about the trend here .

In August 2018, the number of employed persons was 2,566,000 (margin of error ±33,000), which was 64,000 higher than a year earlier. There were 35,000 more employed men and 29,000 more employed women than in August 2017.

In August 2018, the employment rate , that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 72.6 per cent, having been 70.5 per cent one year earlier. From August last year, men’s employment rate rose by 2.4 percentage points to 74.4 per cent and women’s by 1.8 percentage points to 70.8 per cent. Adjusted for seasonal and random variation, the trend of the employment rate was 71.8 per cent.

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 186,000 unemployed in August 2018 (margin of error ±17,000), i.e. 16,000 fewer than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 90,000 and that of women 96,000.

At 6.8 per cent, the unemployment rate was 0.7 percentage points lower in August than one year earlier. The unemployment rate of men decreased by 0.6 percentage points to 6.3 per cent, and that of women by 0.8 percentage points to 7.3 per cent. The trend of the unemployment rate was 7.5 per cent.

In August, there were a total of 618,000 young people aged 15 to 24 . Of them, 278,000 were employed and 44,000 unemployed. The number of young people in the active population, i.e. the employed and unemployed in total, was 322,000. In August, the unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24, that is, the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force, stood at 13.6 per cent, which was 0.8 percentage points lower than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 17.3 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 7.1 per cent.

There were 1,371,000 persons in the inactive population in August 2018, which was 41,000 fewer than one year earlier. Of the inactive population, 118,000 persons were in disguised unemployment , which was 22,000 fewer than in August 2017.

Changes in employment 2017/08 – 2018/08 according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

  Year/Month Change
2017/08 2018/08 2017/08 - 2018/08
1000 persons Per cent, %
Population total 4 116 4 124 0,2
Active population total 2 704 2 753 1,8
Employed 2 502 2 566 2,6
– employees 2 155 2 216 2,8
– self-employed persons and unpaid family workers 348 351 0,9
Unemployed 202 186 –7,7
Inactive population 1 412 1 371 –2,9
– persons in disguised unemployment 140 118 –15,7
  Per cent, % Percentage points
Employment rate, persons aged 15–64 70,5 72,6 2,1
Unemployment rate 7,5 6,8 –0,7
Activity rate 65,7 66,8 1,1
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.
The data comply with the ILO/EU definition.

Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

At the end of August 2018, there were altogether 243,000 persons registered in accordance with the Employment Office Regulations as unemployed job seekers at the employment and economic development offices . The number of unemployed job seekers was 45,000 lower than in August last year.

Unemployment fell in August from the corresponding period in 2017 in the areas of all Employment and Economic Development Centres; most in Pirkanmaa (-25%), Ostrobothnia (-23%), South Ostrobothnia (-21%), North Ostrobothnia (-18%), North Savo (-18%) and Satakunta (-18%). At the end of August, the number of fully laid off persons registered at the employment and economic development offices was 7,000, which was 3,000 fewer than twelve months earlier.

The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 119,000 at the end of August, which was 6,000 more than in August of the year before. Altogether, 4.3 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.

There were 31,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25 registered at the employment and economic development offices. Their number was 5,000 lower than in last year's August. During this August, 59,000 new vacancies were reported to the employment and economic development offices, which was 8,000 more than in the previous year's August.

Changes 2017/08–2018/08 according to the Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

  Year/Month Change
2017/08 2018/08 2017/08 - 2018/08
1000 persons Per cent, %
Unemployed job seekers 289 243 –15,7
– unemployed over a year 102 73 –28,3
Services, total 112 119 5,3
– employed 24 26 5,8
– in labour market training, in training 18 19 5,1
– engaged in work/training trials 9 9 0,6
– as a job alternation substitute, in rehabilitative work, self-motivated studies supported by unemployment benefit 61 65 5,9
New vacancies at employment and economic development offices 51 59 15,0
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.

Contact information for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment:
Petri Syvänen , tel. +358 29 504 8050, http://www.temtyollisyyskatsaus.fi

Links

Labour Force Survey tables in databases

About seasonally adjusted trend

The accuracy of figures and the margins of error are explained in the quality description of the Labour Force Survey .

Comparison between the employment statistics of Statistics Finland and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

Latest seasonally adjusted employment figures published by the EU can be found on Eurostat's home page http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

Job vacancy survey

Latest data on open job vacancies published by the EU can be found on Eurostat's home page http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat


Source: Labour force survey 2018, August. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Henri Lukkarinen 029 551 3704, Ulla Hannula 029 551 2924, tyovoimatutkimus@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

Publication in pdf-format (469.6 kB)

Tables

Tables in databases

Pick the data you need into tables, view the data as graphs, or download the data for your use.

Appendix tables

Figures
Quality descriptions

Updated 25.09.2018

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Labour force survey [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-7857. August 2018. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 5.11.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/2018/08/tyti_2018_08_2018-09-25_tie_001_en.html