HELSINKI: The unemployment rate was 7.2 per cent in August 2016, having been 8.3 per cent in the year before. The number of unemployed persons in August was 195,000, which was 28,000 lower than one year ago, according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey.
There were 27,000 more employed persons than in August of the previous year. The number of persons in the inactive population was 8,000 higher than one year earlier, the data show. In August 2016, the number of employed persons was 2,495,000, which was 27,000 higher than a year earlier. There were 29,000 more employed men and 3,000 fewer employed women than in August 2015.
In August 2016, the employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 69.9 per cent, having been 68.8 per cent one year earlier. From last year’s August, men’s employment rate rose by 1.9 percentage points to 71.3 per cent and women’s by 0.3 percentage points to 68.5 per cent.
Adjusted for seasonal and random variation, the trend of the employment rate was 68.7 per cent. At the end of August 2016, there were altogether 343,000 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 lower than in August 2015.
Unemployment fell in August from the corresponding period in 2015 in the areas of eleven Employment and Economic Development Centres—most in Kainuu (–11%), North Savo (–7%), and Lapland (–6%). In the areas of all other Employment and Economic Development Centres, unemployment increased most in Ostrobothnia (8%), Pirkanmaa (3%) and Uusimaa (2%).
At the end of August, the number of temporarily laid off persons registered at the employment and economic development offices was 17,000, which was 2,000 fewer than twelve months earlier. The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 113,000 at the end of August, which was 3,000 more than in August of the year before. Altogether, 4.2 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services as per the statistics.
There were 46,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25 registered at the employment and economic development offices. Their number was 2,000 lower than in last year’s August. During this August, 51,000 new vacancies were reported to the employment and economic development offices, which was 14,000 more than in August 2015.
