Number of unemployed jobseekers decreases in Jan

A total of 285,800 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices at the end of January, which is 57,000 fewer than a year earlier.

The number of unemployed jobseekers was down by 9,700 from the previous month, said a press release of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

The number of long-term unemployed — that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year — amounted to 89,600, down 32,200 on the previous year. The number of unemployed jobseekers over 50 years of age was 108,800, or 20,300 fewer than at the same time a year earlier.

Unemployed jobseekers under 25 years of age numbered 35,400, representing a decrease of 8,000 from January last year. Among unemployed young people, the period of unemployment ended within three months on average in 70.0 percent of cases in January, which is 9.1 percentage points more than the year before.

The number of new vacancies reported to Employment and Economic Development Offices during January totalled 74,600, or 16,200 more than in January the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies at Employment and Economic Development Offices in January amounted to 113,800, which was 22,500 more than a year ago.

At the end of January, the number of people laid off was 24,800 in the whole country, which was 9,100 fewer than at the same time the year before. The number of people fully laid off totalled 16,600, representing a decrease of 6,900 from January the year before.

At the end of January, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 121,200, up 500 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, work trials and self-motivated studies.

According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in January the number of people in employment was up 71,000 on the previous year. The employment rate was 69.3%, which was 2.3 percentage points higher than in January the year before.

According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 238,000 which is 4,000 fewer than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 8.8%, or 0.4 percentage points lower than the previous year.