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Published: 22 October 2019

Employment increased, unemployment decreased from one year ago

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey there were 40,000 more employed persons in September than a year earlier. There were 9,000 fewer unemployed than in September 2018. The trend of the employment rate was 72.8 per cent and the trend of the unemployment rate was 6.7 per cent.

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2009/09–2019/09, persons aged 15–64

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2009/09–2019/09, 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 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 72.8 per cent in September. After the latest revision to the time series, the trend of the employment rate was 72.6 per cent in August. The trend of the unemployment rate remained unchanged from August, at 6.7 per cent.

In September 2019, the number of employed persons was 2,573,000 (margin of error ±34,000), which was 40,000 higher than a year earlier. There were 1,000 more employed men and 39,000 more employed women than in September 2018.

In September, the employment rate , that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 72.7 per cent, having been 71.4 per cent one year earlier. From the previous year’s September, the employment rate of men aged 15 to 64 rose by 0.3 percentage points to 73.8 per cent and that of women rose by 2.4 percentage points to 71.5 per cent.

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 161,000 (margin of error ±17,000) unemployed in September 2019, i.e. 9,000 fewer than in September of the year before. The number of unemployed men was 86,000 and that of women 75,000.

At 5.9 per cent, the unemployment rate was 0.4 percentage points lower in September than one year earlier. The unemployment rate for men was 6.1 per cent or 0.4 percentage points higher than one year earlier. The unemployment rate for women fell by 1.3 percentage points to 5.7 per cent.

In September, there were a total of 612,000 young people aged 15 to 24 . Of them, 241,000 were employed and 40,000 unemployed. The number of young people in the active population, i.e. the employed and unemployed, was 282,000. In September, the unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24, that is, the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force, stood at 14.3 per cent, which was almost the same as one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 17.1 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 6.6 per cent.

There were 1,395,000 persons in the inactive population in September 2019, which was 27,000 fewer than one year earlier. Of the inactive population, 111,000 persons were in disguised unemployment , which was 17,000 fewer than in September 2018.

Changes in employment 2018/09 – 2019/09 according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

  Year/Month Change
2018/09 2019/09 2018/09 - 2019/09
1000 persons Per cent, %
Population total 4 125 4 129 0,1
Active population total 2 703 2 734 1,2
Employed 2 533 2 573 1,6
– employees 2 180 2 203 1,0
– self-employed persons and unpaid family workers 352 370 5,2
Unemployed 170 161 –5,2
Inactive population 1 422 1 395 –1,9
– persons in disguised unemployment 129 111 –13,4
  Per cent, % Percentage points
Employment rate, persons aged 15–64 71,4 72,7 1,3
Unemployment rate 6,3 5,9 –0,4
Activity rate 65,5 66,2 0,7
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.
The data comply with the ILO/EU definition.

Labour Force Survey data for the third quarter of 2019

In the third quarter (July to September) of 2019, the average number of employed persons was 2,600,000, or 23,000 higher than in the corresponding quarter of 2018. The number of employed persons increased most in human health and social work activities (Q) and in administrative and support service activities (N).

The number of hours worked by employed persons was around 0.2 per cent higher in the third quarter of 2019 than twelve months previously.

The average number of unemployed persons in the third quarter of 2019 was 166,000, which was 13,000 fewer than in the July to September period of 2018. The unemployment rate in the third quarter of 2019 was 6.0 per cent, which was 0.5 percentage points lower than in the respective period of 2018.

In the third quarter of 2019, the number of persons in the inactive population was 1,362,000, which was 6,000 fewer than a year earlier. Of the inactive population, 111,000 persons were in disguised unemployment , which was 11,000 fewer than in the corresponding period of 2018.

Changes in employment 2018/III – 2019/III according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

  Year/Quarter Change
2018/III 2019/III 2018/III - 2019/III
1000 persons Per cent (%)
Active population total 2 757 2 766 0,3
Employed persons total 2 577 2 600 0,9
Unemployed total 180 166 –7,4
– men 88 89 0,3
– women 91 78 –14,9
Inactive population 1 367 1 362 –0,4
– persons in disguised unemployment 122 111 –8,8
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 September 2019, there were altogether 226,000 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 6,000 lower than in last year's September.

Unemployment fell in September from the corresponding period in 2018 in the areas of 12 Employment and Economic Development Centres: most in Southwest Finland (-9%), Häme (-7%), Kainuu (-6%) and South Ostrobothnia (-6%). The number of unemployed job seekers increased most in Pirkanmaa (4%). At the end of September, the number of persons fully laid off registered at the employment and economic development offices was 8,000, which was 2,000 more than twelve months earlier.

The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 120,000 at the end of September, which was 6,000 fewer than in September of the previous year. Altogether, 4.4 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.

There were 28,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25 registered at the employment and economic development offices. Their number was 1,000 persons lower than in last year’s September. During this September, 65,000 new vacancies were reported to the employment and economic development offices, which was 15,000 more than in last year's September.

Changes 2018/09–2019/09 according to the Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

  Year/Month Change
2018/09 2019/09 2018/09 - 2019/09
1000 persons Per cent, %
Unemployed job seekers 232 226 –2,6
– unemployed over a year 70 63 –11,1
Services, total 127 120 –5,0
– employed 26 24 –5,2
– in labour market training, in training 22 22 2,0
– engaged in work/training trials 10 8 –15,4
– as a job alternation substitute, in rehabilitative work, self-motivated studies supported by unemployment benefit 69 65 –5,6
New vacancies at employment and economic development offices 51 65 29,5
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

The age group 20 to 69 has been added to the database tables 11af (month) and 11c8 (quarter) - Population by labour force status, sex and age.

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


Source: Labour force survey 2019, September. Statistics Finland

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

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

Publication in pdf-format (647.4 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 22.10.2019

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Labour force survey [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-7857. September 2019. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 28.12.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/2019/09/tyti_2019_09_2019-10-22_tie_001_en.html