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Published: 22 March 2022

Employment continued to grow in February

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, the number of employed people was 89,000 higher in February 2022 than one year ago. The number of unemployed persons was 40,000 fewer in February than a year ago. The trend of the employment rate in February was 74.0 per cent and the trend of the unemployment rate was 6.8 per cent.

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2012/02–2022/02, persons aged 15–64

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2012/02–2022/02, persons aged 15–64

Employment and unemployment vary quite much 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. The preliminary nature of the latest trend figures should be considered when making conclusions. The fall in employment in spring 2020 was interpreted as a level shift in the seasonal adjustment model. 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 data content, data collection and estimation method of the Labour Force Survey were revised at the beginning of 2021. The most important key figures from the corrected time series have been published in the StatFin database service.

In February 2022, the number of employed persons was 2,570,000 (margin of error ±33,000), which was 89,000 higher than a year earlier. There were 43,000 more employed men and 46,000 more employed women than in February 2021.

In February, the employment rate , that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 72.7 per cent, having been 70.0 per cent one year earlier. From the previous year’s February, the employment rate of men aged 15 to 64 rose by 2.5 percentage points to 72.3 per cent and that of women rose by 2.9 percentage points to 73.2 per cent. The employment rate of people aged 20 to 69 was 71.6 per cent, having been 68.8 per cent in the year before.

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 185,000 unemployed in February 2022 (margin of error ±23,000), which was 40,000 fewer than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 105,000 and that of women 79,000.

In February the unemployment rate , the proportion of the employed among the labour force stood at 6.7 per cent, having been 8.3 per cent one year earlier. From the previous year’s February, men’s unemployment rate fell by 2.0 percentage points to 7.4 per cent and women’s by 1.2 percentage points to 5.9 per cent.

In February, the unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 24 stood at 14.5 per cent, which was 7.3 percentage points lower than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 14.0 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 6.8 per cent.

There were 1,367,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in February 2022, which was 55,000 fewer than the one year earlier.

Changes in employment 2021/02 – 2022/02 according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

Year/Month Change
2021/02 2022/02 2021/02 - 2022/02
1000 persons Per cent, %
Population total 4 127 4 121 –0,1
Active population total 2 705 2 755 1,8
Employed 2 481 2 570 3,6
– employees 2 134 2 235 4,7
– self-employed persons and unpaid family workers 347 336 –3,3
Unemployed 224 185 –17,6
Inactive population 1 422 1 367 –3,9
Per cent, % Percentage points
Employment rate, persons aged 15–64 70,0 72,7 2,7
Employment rate, persons aged 20–69 68,8 71,6 2,8
Unemployment rate 8,3 6,7 –1,6
Activity rate 65,5 66,8 1,3
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 February 2022, there were altogether 266,000 persons registered in accordance with the Employment Office Regulations as job seekers at the employment and economic development offices and in local government pilots. The number of unemployed job seekers was 62,000 lower than in the previous year's February.

Unemployment fell in February from the corresponding period last year in the areas of all Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment: most in Ostrobothnia (-27%), Pirkanmaa (-22%), Lapland (-22%) and Satakunta (-21%). The number of unemployed job seekers declined least in South Savo (-12%), Central Finland (-13%), North Karelia (-15%), Häme (-15%) and Kainuu (-15%). At the end of February, the number of fully laid off persons was 27,000, which was 29,000 fewer than twelve months earlier.

The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 111,000 at the end of February, which was 4,000 fewer than in February of the year before. Altogether, 4.0 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.

There were 28,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25. Their number was 11,000 lower than in the previous year's February. During this February, 122,000 new vacancies were reported, which was 44,000 more than in February last year.

Changes 2021/02–2022/02 according to the Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

Year/Month Change
2021/02 2022/02 2021/02 - 2022/02
1000 persons Per cent, %
Unemployed job seekers 327 266 –18,8
– unemployed over a year 96 104 8,0
Services, total 115 111 –3,3
– employed 24 29 22,0
– in labour market training, in training 26 22 –14,4
– engaged in work/training trials 6 6 –4,2
– as a job alternation substitute, in rehabilitative work, self-motivated studies supported by unemployment benefit 59 54 –8,5
New vacancies at employment and economic development offices 79 122 55,7
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment’s Employment bulletin

Links

Labour Force Survey tables in databases

About seasonally adjusted trend

The accuracy of figures is 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 2022, February. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Kirsi Toivonen 029 551 3535, Tatu Leskinen 029 551 3285, tyovoimatutkimus@stat.fi

Head of Department in charge: Hannele Orjala

Publication in pdf-format (424.2 kB)

Tables

Tables in databases

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Appendix tables

Figures
Quality descriptions

Updated 22.3.2022

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Labour force survey [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-7857. February 2022. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 31.12.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/2022/02/tyti_2022_02_2022-03-22_tie_001_en.html