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Published: 25 February 2020

Both employment and unemployment increased from one year ago

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, the number of employed people was 46,000 higher in January 2020 than one year ago. There were 15,000 more unemployed than in January 2019. The trend of the employment rate was 73.4 per cent and the trend of the unemployment rate was 6.8 per cent.

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2010/01–2020/01, persons aged 15–64

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2010/01–2020/01, persons aged 15–64

Employment and unemployment 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 considered when making conclusions. The figures reported in this release are not adjusted for seasonal variation unless separately mentioned that they concern the trend. Find out more about the trend here .

The trend of the employment rate was 73.4 per cent in January and the trend of the unemployment rate was 6.8 per cent. According to seasonally adjusted data for January, both the trend of the employment and the trend of the unemployment rate have increased slightly in recent months.

In January 2020, the number of employed persons was 2,543,000 (margin of error ±34,000), which was 46,000 higher than a year earlier. There were 32,000 more employed men and 14,000 more employed women than in January 2019.

In January, the employment rate , that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 72.1 per cent, having been 70.6 per cent one year earlier. From January last year, the employment rate for men aged 15 to 64 increased by 1.6 percentage points to 72.6 per cent and women’s employment rate by 1.4 percentage points to 71.6 per cent.

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 196,000 unemployed (margin of error ±19,000) in January 2020, i.e. 15,000 more than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 106,000 and that of women 91,000.

The unemployment rate was 7.2 per cent in January, having been 6.8 per cent in the year before. The employment rate for men grew by 0.3 percentage points from last year’s January to 7.4 per cent. Women's employment rate rose by 0.5 percentage points to 6.9 per cent.

In January, there were a total of 611,000 young people aged 15 to 24 . Of them, 239,000 were employed and 59,000 were unemployed. Thus, the number of young people in the active population, i.e. the employed and unemployed in total, was 298,000. In January, the unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24, that is, the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force, stood at 19.8 per cent, which was 3.5 percentage points higher than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 17.9 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 9.7 per cent.

There were 1,392,000 persons in the inactive population in January 2020, which was 57,000 fewer than one year earlier. Of the inactive population, 138,000 persons were in disguised unemployment , which was 14,000 more than in January 2019.

Changes in employment 2019/01 – 2020/01 according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

  Year/Month Change
2019/01 2020/01 2019/01 - 2020/01
1000 persons Per cent, %
Population total 4 127 4 132 0,1
Active population total 2 679 2 740 2,3
Employed 2 498 2 543 1,8
– employees 2 152 2 220 3,1
– self-employed persons and unpaid family workers 345 323 –6,3
Unemployed 181 196 8,3
Inactive population 1 449 1 392 –3,9
– persons in disguised unemployment 124 138 11,2
  Per cent, % Percentage points
Employment rate, persons aged 15–64 70,6 72,1 1,5
Unemployment rate 6,8 7,2 0,4
Activity rate 64,9 66,3 1,4
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 January 2020, there were altogether 252,000 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 the same as in January 2019.

Unemployment fell in January from the corresponding period in 2019 in the areas of seven Employment and Economic Development Centres: most in Kainuu (-8%), Häme (-4%), Lapland (-4%), Southwest Finland (-3%) and South Savo (-3%). The number of unemployed job seekers grew by most in North Karelia (4%), Pirkanmaa (4%), North Ostrobothnia (3%) and Ostrobothnia (3%). At the end of January, the number of fully laid off persons registered at the employment and economic development offices was 18,000, which was 3,000 more than twelve months earlier.

The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 116,000 at the end of January, which was 6,000 fewer than in January of the previous year. Altogether, 4.2 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 1,000 lower than in January of the year before. During this January, 93,000 new vacancies were reported to the employment and economic development offices, which was 6,000 more than in January 2019.

Changes 2019/01–2020/01 according to the Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

  Year/Month Change
2019/01 2020/01 2019/01 - 2020/01
1000 persons Per cent, %
Unemployed job seekers 251 252 0,1
– unemployed over a year 66 63 –3,7
Services, total 122 116 –5,0
– employed 24 22 –5,8
– in labour market training, in training 21 22 6,7
– engaged in work/training trials 10 8 –18,3
– as a job alternation substitute, in rehabilitative work, self-motivated studies supported by unemployment benefit 68 63 –6,5
New vacancies at employment and economic development offices 87 93 6,7
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, Employment bulletin

Links

A new classification of employer sectors has been adopted in the Labour Force Survey starting from 1 January 2020. Due to the change, the first employer sector data for 2020 will be published in connection with the release of the data for the first quarter on 23 April 2020.

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

Job vacancy survey

The latest seasonally adjusted employment figures published by the EU and
the 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 2020, January. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Tatu Leskinen 029 551 3285, Ulla Hannula 029 551 2924, tyovoimatutkimus@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

Publication in pdf-format (446.4 kB)

Tables

Tables in databases

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Appendix tables

Figures
Quality descriptions

Updated 25.02.2020

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Labour force survey [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-7857. January 2020. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 16.12.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/2020/01/tyti_2020_01_2020-02-25_tie_001_en.html