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Published: 27 May 2020

Employment weakened in April compared to one year ago

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, the number of employed people was 56,000 lower in April 2020 than one year ago. The number of unemployed was almost the same as in April 2019. The number of persons in disguised unemployment in the inactive population was 88,000 higher than one year earlier. The trend of the employment rate was 73.5 per cent and the trend of the unemployment rate was 6.8 per cent.

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2010/04–2020/04, persons aged 15–64

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2010/04–2020/04, 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 .

According to the seasonally adjusted data for April, the trend of the employment rate was 73.5 per cent and in March 73.4 per cent. The trend of the unemployment rate was 6.8 per cent in April. The trend of the unemployment rate has remained almost unchanged in recent months.

In April 2020, the number of employed persons was 2,464,000 (margin of error ±36,000), which was 56,000 lower than a year earlier. There were 27,000 fewer employed men and 28,000 fewer employed women than in April 2019.

In April 2020, the employment rate , that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 70.1 per cent, having been 71.2 per cent one year earlier. From the previous year’s April, the employment rate of men aged 15 to 64 fell by 1.3 percentage points to 70.5 per cent and that of women by 1.0 percentage points to 69.7 per cent.

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 217,000 unemployed in April 2020, which was almost the same as one year earlier (margin of error ±21,000). The number of unemployed men was 120,000 and that of women 97,000.

The unemployment rate was 8.1 per cent in April, having been 8.0 per cent in the year before. The unemployment rate for men fell by 0.1 percentage points from last year’s April to 8,6 per cent. The unemployment rate for women rose by 0.3 percentage points to 7.5 per cent.

The number of young people aged 15 to 24 was 609,000 in April. Of them, 229,000 were employed and 77,000 unemployed. Thus, the number of young people in the active population, i.e. the employed and unemployed in total, was 307,000. In April, the unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24, that is, the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force, stood at 25.2 per cent, which was 1.8 percentage points higher than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 18.4 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 12.7 per cent.

There were 1,451,000 persons in the inactive population in April 2020, which was 66,000 more than one year earlier. Of the inactive population, 196,000 persons were in disguised unemployment , which was 88,000 more than in April 2019.

Changes in employment 2019/04 – 2020/04 according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

  Year/Month Change
2019/04 2020/04 2019/04 - 2020/04
1000 persons Per cent, %
Population total 4 124 4 133 0,2
Active population total 2 739 2 681 –2,1
Employed 2 520 2 464 –2,2
– employees 2 194 2 149 –2,1
– self-employed persons and unpaid family workers 325 315 –3,2
Unemployed 220 217 –1,0
Inactive population 1 385 1 451 4,8
– persons in disguised unemployment 108 196 81,2
  Per cent, % Percentage points
Employment rate, persons aged 15–64 71,2 70,1 –1,1
Unemployment rate 8,0 8,1 0,1
Activity rate 66,4 64,9 –1,5
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 April 2020, there were altogether 433,000 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 203,000 higher than in April last year.

Unemployment rose in April from the corresponding period of the previous year in the areas of all Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment: most in Uusimaa (115%), Southwest Finland (106%), South Ostrobothnia (105%), and Ostrobothnia (100%). The number of unemployed job seekers grew least in Kainuu (50%), North Karelia (60%), Central Finland (60%) and South Savo (61%). At the end of April, the number of fully laid off persons registered at the employment and economic development offices was 164,000, which was 152,000 higher than twelve months earlier.

The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 111,000 at the end of April, which was 19,000 fewer than in April of the year before. Altogether, 4.1 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.

There were 56,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25 registered at the employment and economic development offices. Their number was 28,000 higher than in last year's April. During this April, 50,000 new vacancies were reported to the employment and economic development offices, which is 19,000 fewer than in April last year.

Changes 2019/04–2020/04 according to the Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

  Year/Month Change
2019/04 2020/04 2019/04 - 2020/04
1000 persons Per cent, %
Unemployed job seekers 230 433 88,6
– unemployed over a year 63 67 6,8
Services, total 130 111 –14,5
– employed 25 22 –11,5
– in labour market training, in training 25 24 –3,6
– engaged in work/training trials 10 6 –42,8
– as a job alternation substitute, in rehabilitative work, self-motivated studies supported by unemployment benefit 70 60 –15,2
New vacancies at employment and economic development offices 69 50 –27,2
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

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, April. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Joanna Viinikka 029 551 3796, Tatu Leskinen 029 551 3285, tyovoimatutkimus@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

Publication in pdf-format (450.5 kB)

Tables

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Appendix tables

Figures
Quality descriptions

Updated 27.5.2020

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Labour force survey [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-7857. April 2020. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 16.11.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/2020/04/tyti_2020_04_2020-05-27_tie_001_en.html