HELSINKI: The unemployment rate in January 2016 was 9.3 per cent compared to 8.8 per cent in January of the year before, according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey. The number of unemployed persons in January was 245,000, which was 14,000 higher than one year ago. The number of persons in the inactive population was 9,000 higher than one year earlier, the data show.
In January, the number of employed persons was 2,385,000, which was 14,000 lower than a year earlier. There were 4,000 fewer employed men and 10,000 fewer employed women than in January 2015.
In January 2015, the employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 66.8 per cent, having been 66.7 per cent one year earlier. The employment rate for men grew by 0.3 percentage points from last year’s January to 66.6 per cent.
The employment rate for women fell by 0.3 percentage points to 66.9 per cent. Adjusted for seasonal and random variation, the trend of the employment rate was 68.1 per cent as per the statistics. In January, there were a total of 640,000 young people aged 15 to 24. Of them, 214,000 were employed and 57,000 were unemployed.
There were 1,481,000 persons in the inactive population in January 2016, which was 9,000 more than one year earlier, according to the data. Of the inactive population, 177,000 persons were in disguised unemployment, which was 32,000 more than in the corresponding period of 2015. At the end of January 2016, there were altogether 368,000 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 9,000 higher than in January last year.
Unemployment fell in January from the corresponding period in 2015 in the areas of five Employment and Economic Development Centres—most in Kainuu (–5%), North Ostrobothnia (–2%), Häme (–2%) and Lapland (–2%).
In the areas of all other Employment and Economic Development Centres, unemployment increased most in Ostrobothnia (8%), Uusimaa (7%) and Southeast Finland (4%).
At the end of January, the number of temporarily laid off persons registered at the employment and economic development offices was 31,000, which was 3,000 fewer than twelve months earlier. The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 115,000 at the end of January, which was 7,000 fewer than in January of the previous year. Altogether, 4.4 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.
There were 48,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25 registered at the employment and economic development offices. Their number was almost the same as in last year’s January. During this January, 52,000 new vacancies were reported to the employment and economic development offices, which is 1,000 fewer than in January 2014.
