HELSINKI: The unemployment rate in March 2016 was 10.1 per cent, having been 10.3 per cent in the corresponding period of the year before, according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey. The number of unemployed persons in March was 273,000, which was nearly the same as one year ago.
There were 39,000 more employed than in March of the previous year. The unemployment rate was 9.6 per cent in the first quarter (January to March), having been 9.7 per cent in the respective quarter of 2015, the data show. In March 2016, the number of employed persons was 2,420,000, which was 39,000 higher than a year earlier.
There were 30,000 more employed men and 8,000 more employed women than in March 2015. In March, the employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 68.0 per cent, having been 66.8 per cent one year earlier.
From last year’s March, men’s employment rate rose by 1.8 percentage points to 69.3 per cent and women’s by 0.7 percentage points to 66.7 per cent. Adjusted for seasonal and random variation, the trend of the employment rate was 68.7 per cent. In March, there were a total of 639,000 young people aged 15 to 24. Of them, 240,000 were employed and 75,000 unemployed. The number of young people in the active population was 315,000. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 20.7 per cent.
The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 11.8 per cent. There were 1,416,000 persons in the inactive population in March 2016, which was 29,000 fewer than one year earlier. Of the inactive population, 127,000 persons were in disguised unemployment, which was 3,000 fewer than in March 2015.
In the first quarter of 2016, the average number of employed persons was 2,396,000, or 5,000 higher than in the corresponding quarter of 2015. The number of employed persons increased most in transportation and storage and decreased in education as per the statistics. At the end of March, there were altogether 351,000 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 4,000 higher than in last year’s March.
