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Published: 20 December 2019

Employment increased and unemployment decreased from one year ago

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, there were 10,000 more employed persons in November than a year earlier. There were 8,000 fewer unemployed than in November 2018. The trend of the employment rate was 72.6 per cent and the trend of the unemployment rate was 6.7 per cent.

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2009/11–2019/11, persons aged 15–64

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2009/11–2019/11, persons aged 15–64

Unemployment and employment vary quite considerably by month and the change from the observation of the previous month mainly describes the seasonal aspect rather than the trend in development. Thus, the latest statistical data are compared to the corresponding period of the year before. By contrast, the figures of the trend series that are adjusted for seasonal and random variation are mutually comparable and phenomena associated with long-term development and cyclical changes are thus more easily observable from the trend of the time series.

The trend usually changes somewhat when the data of the following month are included in the time series. This preliminary nature of trend figures should be considered when making conclusions. The figures reported in this release are not adjusted for seasonal variation unless separately mentioned that they concern the trend. Find out more about the trend here .

The trend of the employment rate was 72.6 per cent in November and the trend of the unemployment rate was 6.7 per cent. According to seasonally adjusted figures for November, the trend of the unemployment rate has remained unchanged in recent months.

In November 2019, the number of employed persons was 2,543,000 (margin of error ±35,000), which was 10,000 higher than a year earlier. There were 8,000 more employed men and 2,000 more employed women than in November 2018.

In November, the employment rate , that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 71.7 per cent, having been 71.5 per cent one year earlier. From the previous year’s November, the employment rate of men aged 15 to 64 rose by 0.2 percentage points to 72.6 per cent and that of women also rose by 0.2 percentage points to 70.8 per cent.

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 160,000 (margin of error ±17,000) unemployed in November 2019, i.e. 8,000 fewer than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 94,000 and that of women 66,000.

The unemployment rate was 5.9 per cent in November, having been 6.2 per cent in the year before. The unemployment rate for men fell by 0.5 percentage points from last year’s November to 6,7 per cent. Women’s unemployment rate decreased to 5.1 per cent, having been 5.2 per cent in November 2018.

In November, there were a total of 611,000 young people aged 15 to 24 . Of them, 230,000 were employed and 31,000 were unemployed. Thus, the number of young people in the active population, i.e. the employed and unemployed in total, was 261,000. In November, the unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24, that is, the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force, stood at 11.8 per cent, which was 0.7 percentage points lower than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 16.9 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 5.0 per cent.

There were 1,427,000 in the inactive population in November 2019, which was almost the same as one year earlier. Of the inactive population, 124,000 persons were in disguised unemployment , which was 10,000 fewer than in November 2018.

Changes in employment 2018/11 – 2019/11 according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

  Year/Month Change
2018/11 2019/11 2018/11 - 2019/11
1000 persons Per cent, %
Population total 4 127 4 130 0,1
Active population total 2 701 2 703 0,1
Employed 2 534 2 543 0,4
– employees 2 186 2 196 0,5
– self-employed persons and unpaid family workers 348 347 –0,1
Unemployed 168 160 –4,6
Inactive population 1 425 1 427 0,1
– persons in disguised unemployment 134 124 –7,5
  Per cent, % Percentage points
Employment rate, persons aged 15–64 71,5 71,7 0,2
Unemployment rate 6,2 5,9 –0,3
Activity rate 65,5 65,5 0,0
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.
The data comply with the ILO/EU definition.

Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

At the end of November 2019, there were altogether 229,000 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 1,000 lower than in November of the previous year.

Unemployment fell in November from the corresponding period in 2018 in the areas of 11 Employment and Economic Development Centres: most in Kainuu (-8%), Häme (-5%), Lapland (-4%), Southwest Finland (-3%), South Ostrobothnia (-2%), and Southeast Finland (-2%). The number of unemployed job seekers increased most in Pirkanmaa (7%) and Satakunta (5%). At the end of November, the number of persons fully laid off registered at the employment and economic development offices was 15,000, which was 5,000 more than twelve months earlier.

The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 125,000 at the end of November, which was 7,000 fewer than in November of the previous year. Altogether, 4.6 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.

There were 27,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25 registered at the employment and economic development offices. Their number was 1,000 lower than in last year’s November. During this November, 57,000 new vacancies were reported to the employment and economic development offices, which was 6,000 more than in November 2018.

Changes 2018/11–2019/11 according to the Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

  Year/Month Change
2018/11 2019/11 2018/11 - 2019/11
1000 persons Per cent, %
Unemployed job seekers 229 229 –0,3
– unemployed over a year 66 61 –7,8
Services, total 132 125 –5,4
– employed 25 24 –5,0
– in labour market training, in training 25 25 0,6
– engaged in work/training trials 11 9 –17,3
– as a job alternation substitute, in rehabilitative work, self-motivated studies supported by unemployment benefit 71 67 –5,8
New vacancies at employment and economic development offices 50 57 12,7
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.

Contact information for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment:
Petri Syvänen , tel. +358 29 504 8050, Employment bulletin

Links

Labour Force Survey tables in databases

About seasonally adjusted trend

The accuracy of figures and the margins of error are explained in the quality description of the Labour Force Survey .

Comparison between the employment statistics of Statistics Finland and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

Job vacancy survey

The latest seasonally adjusted employment figures published by the EU and
the latest data on open job vacancies published by the EU can be found on
Eurostat's home page http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat .


Source: Labour force survey 2019, November. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Ulla Hannula 029 551 2924, Pertti Taskinen 029 551 2690, tyovoimatutkimus@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

Publication in pdf-format (450.5 kB)

Tables

Tables in databases

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Appendix tables

Figures
Quality descriptions

Updated 20.12.2019

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Labour force survey [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-7857. November 2019. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 28.3.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/2019/11/tyti_2019_11_2019-12-20_tie_001_en.html