HELSINKI: The unemployment rate was 9.3 per cent in June 2016, having been 10.0 per cent one year before, according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey. The number of unemployed persons in June was 264,000, which was 16,000 lower than one year ago.
There were 33,000 more employed than in June of the previous year, the data show. The unemployment rate was 10.0 per cent in the second quarter—April to June—having been 10.7 per cent in the respective quarter of 2015. In June, the number of employed persons was 2,558,000, which was 33,000 more than a year earlier.
There were 42,000 more employed men and 10,000 fewer employed women than in June 2015. In June 2016, the employment rate , that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 72.0 per cent, having been 71.0 per cent one year earlier.
Men’s employment rate rose from last year’s June by 2.5 percentage points to 74.7 per cent and women’s employment rate fell by 0.5 percentage points to 69.3 per cent. Adjusted for seasonal and random variation, the trend of the employment rate was 68.5 per cent as per the statistics. There were 1,286,000 persons in the inactive population in June, which was 7,000 fewer than one year earlier.
Of the inactive population, 161,000 persons were in disguised unemployment, which was 9,000 more than in June 2015. At the end of June 2016, there were altogether 366,000 persons registered in accordance with the Employment Office Regulations as job seekers at the employment and economic development offices. The number of unemployed job seekers was 3,000 lower than in June 2015.
Unemployment fell in June from the corresponding period in 2015 in the areas of eleven Employment and Economic Development Centres: most in Kainuu, Häme, North Ostrobothnia, and Central Finland. In the areas of all other Employment and Economic Development Centres, unemployment increased most in Ostrobothnia, Pirkanmaa and Uusimaa.
At the end of June, the number of temporarily laid off persons registered at the employment and economic development offices was 21,000, which was 2,000 fewer than twelve months earlier. The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 108,000 at the end of June, which was 1,000 more than in June of the year before. Altogether, 3.8 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.
