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5 Concepts

Non-employed is a person that is unemployed or in the inactive population.

Parents of families with children - mothers and fathers - are women and men living in the same household with their own or their spouse’s children aged under 18. As the sample contains only a few same-sex parents of families with children, they are not included in the analyses.

Persons without children are women and men without children aged under 18 living in the same household. Thus, they include

  • Persons without any children;

  • So-called remote parents whose child lives or is registered at the address of the other parent; and

  • Parents whose children are aged over 18 or have already moved into their own household.

Age of the youngest child : Age of the family’s youngest (only) child in years. A child aged one has turned one, but is under two. Correspondingly, a child aged two has turned two, but is not yet three.

Family leaves comprise maternity and paternity leave, parental leave and child care leave. They are leaves which the parents of small children are entitled to take by law in order to care for children until the youngest child reaches the age of three. Persons on maternity or paternity leave and persons whose other family leaves last under three months are classified as employed in the Labour Force Survey.

A person is employed if he/she has during the survey week been in gainful employment for at least one hour against pay in money or fringe benefits, or to make a profit. Employees temporarily absent from work during the survey week are also classified as employed if the reason for absence is maternity or paternity leave or own illness or the absence has lasted for under three months. Employees that have been on family leave continuously for at least three months are classified in the inactive population. A self-employed person or an unpaid worker in an enterprise of a family member is calculated in employed regardless of the length or reason for absence.

The employment rate is the ratio of employed persons to the population of the same age. The employment rate of the total population is calculated as the ratio of employed persons aged 15 to 64 to the population of the same age.

The work attendance rate is the percentage share of those at work in all employed persons.

The unemployment rate is the ratio of unemployed persons to the active population (labour force) of the same age, i.e. employed and unemployed persons. The unemployment rate of the total population is calculated as the ratio of unemployed persons aged 15 to 74 to the active population (labour force) of the same age.

Level of education: Those with basic level qualifications have at most nine years of education. They have qualifications from primary school, middle school or comprehensive school. Those with upper secondary level qualifications have 11 to 12 years of education. These qualifications include the matriculation examination, vocational qualifications attained in one to three years. Tertiary level education includes lowest level tertiary education (e.g. technician engineer, diploma in business and administration), lower level tertiary degrees (University of Applied Sciences (UAS) bachelor’s degrees and lower university degrees), higher-level tertiary degrees (e.g. master, licentiate of medicine, University of Applied Sciences (UAS) master’s degrees) and doctorate or equivalent level education (licentiate’s and doctor’s degrees).


Source: Labour Force Survey 2018. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Tarja Nieminen 029 551 3561, Olga Kambur 029 551 3565, tyovoimatutkimus@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma


Updated 14.11.2019

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Labour force survey [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-7857. Families and work 2018, 5 Concepts . Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 29.3.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/2018/14/tyti_2018_14_2019-11-14_kat_005_en.html