HELSINKI: The unemployment rate in May this year was 11.8 per cent, which was 10.7 per cent in the corresponding month of last year, according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey.
The number of unemployed persons in May was 324,000, which was 28,000 higher than one year ago. There were 27,000 fewer employed than in May of the previous year, the data show. The number of persons in the inactive population was 4,000 higher than one year earlier. In May 2015, the number of employed persons was 2,433,000, which was 27,000 lower than a year earlier. There were 18,000 fewer employed men and 9,000 fewer employed women than in May 2014.
In May, the employment rate , that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 68.0 per cent, which was 0.8 percentage points lower than one year before, according to the statistics. The employment rate for men decreased by 0.9 percentage points and stood at 68.3 per cent, and that of women by 0.7 percentage points to 67.8 per cent.
Adjusted for seasonal and random variation, the trend of the employment rate was 67.9 per cent. The number of unemployed men was 168,000 and that of women 156,000. The number of unemployed women grew by 28,000, while that of unemployed men remained unchanged from May 2014. Men’s unemployment rate was 11.9 per cent and women’s 11.6 per cent. The trend of the unemployment rate was 9.7 per cent. In May, there were a total of 645,000 young people aged 15 to 24. Of them, 263,000 were employed and 150,000 unemployed.
The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 23.2 per cent.
