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Published: 24 August 2021

Employment increased and unemployment decreased in July

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, the number of employed people was 86,000 higher in July 2021 than one year ago. There were 5,000 fewer unemployed than in July 2020. The trend of the employment rate was 72.7 per cent and the trend of the unemployment rate was 7.9 per cent.

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2011/07–2021/07, persons aged 15–64

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2011/07–2021/07, 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. All corrected time series will be published in the course of 2021.

In July 2021, the number of employed persons was 2,639,000 (margin of error ±33,000), which was 86,000 higher than a year earlier. There were 45,000 more employed men and 41,000 more employed women than in July 2020.

In July, the employment rate , that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 74.9 per cent, having been 72.6 per cent one year earlier. From last year’s July, the employment rate of men aged 15 to 64 rose by 2.1 percentage points to 75.8 per cent and that of women by 2.4 percentage points to 73.9 per cent. The employment rate of people aged 20 to 69 was 71.8 per cent, having been 69.7 per cent in the year before.

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, there were 202,000 (margin of error ±22,000) unemployed in July 2021, i.e. 5,000 fewer than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 99,000 and that of women 103,000.

In July, the unemployment rate , the proportion of the employed among the labour force stood at 7.1 per cent, having been 7.5 per cent one year earlier. From last year’s July, men’s unemployment rate fell by 0.5 percentage points to 6.7 per cent and women’s by 0.2 percentage points to 7.5 per cent.

In July, the unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 24 stood at 8.7 per cent, which was 6.6 percentage points lower 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 5.4 per cent.

There were 1,282,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in July 2021, which was 94,000 fewer than one year earlier.

Changes in employment 2020/07 – 2021/07 according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

  Year/Month Change
2020/07 2021/07 2020/07 - 2021/07
1000 persons Per cent, %
Population total 4 136 4 123 –0,3
Active population total 2 759 2 841 2,9
Employed 2 553 2 639 3,4
– employees 2 214 2 269 2,5
– self-employed persons and unpaid family workers 339 370 9,1
Unemployed 206 202 –2,2
Inactive population 1 376 1 282 –6,9
  Per cent, % Percentage points
Employment rate, persons aged 15–64 72,6 74,9 2,3
Employment rate, persons aged 20–69 69,7 71,8 2,1
Unemployment rate 7,5 7,1 –0,4
Activity rate 66,7 68,9 2,2
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 July 2021, there were altogether 323,000 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 65,000 lower than in July 2020.

Unemployment fell in July from the corresponding period last year in the areas of all Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment: most in Ostrobothnia (-27%), Pirkanmaa (-26%) and South Ostrobothnia (-25%). The number of unemployed job seekers declined least in Central Finland (-11%), Häme (-12%) and Uusimaa (-12%). At the end of July, the number of fully laid off persons was 32,000, which was 50,000 fewer than twelve months earlier.

The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 98,000 at the end of July, which was 3,000 more than in last year's July. Altogether, 3.4 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.

There were 40,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25. Their number was 14,000 lower than in last year's July. During July, 72,000 new vacancies were reported, which was 26,000 more than in July last year.

Changes 2020/07–2021/07 according to the Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

  Year/Month Change
2020/07 2021/07 2020/07 - 2021/07
1000 persons Per cent, %
Unemployed job seekers 387 323 –16,7
– unemployed over a year 78 114 46,6
Services, total 94 98 3,7
– employed 21 28 32,7
– in labour market training, in training 20 18 –7,6
– engaged in work/training trials 5 5 6,8
– as a job alternation substitute, in rehabilitative work, self-motivated studies supported by unemployment benefit 49 47 –4,4
New vacancies at employment and economic development offices 46 72 55,7
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment 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 2021, July. Statistics Finland

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

Head of Department in charge: Hannele Orjala

Publication in pdf-format (421.2 kB)

Tables

Tables in databases

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Appendix tables

Figures
Quality descriptions

Updated 24.8.2021

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Labour force survey [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-7857. July 2021. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 28.12.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/2021/07/tyti_2021_07_2021-08-24_tie_001_en.html