Number of unemployed jobseekers decreases in March

A total of 264,100 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices at the end of March.

The number of unemployed jobseekers was 53,100 less than in the corresponding period a year earlier, said an official press release.

The number was down by 12,100 from the previous month, the Employment Bulletin of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment said.

The number of long-term unemployed — that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year — amounted to 82,900, down 29,400 from the previous year.

The number of unemployed jobseekers over 50 years of age was 102,200, or 19,800 fewer than at the same time a year earlier.

Unemployed jobseekers under 25 years of age numbered 32,200, representing a decrease of 6,400 from March last year. Among unemployed young people, the period of unemployment ended within three months on average in 69.0% of cases between January and March, which is 7.2 percentage points more than the year before.

At the end of March, the number of people laid off was 23,200 in the whole country, which was 7,000 fewer than at the same time the year before. The number of people fully laid off totalled 15,300, representing a decrease of 4,900 from March the year before.

The number of new vacancies reported to Employment and Economic Development Offices during March totalled 63,700, or 4,000 more than in March the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies at Employment and Economic Development Offices in March amounted to 141,400, which was 18,100 more than a year ago.

At the end of March, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 132,000, up 5,400 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 March the number of people in employment was up 37,000 on the previous year. The employment rate was 70.0%, which was 1.1 percentage points higher than in March the year before.

According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 240,000, which is 20,000 fewer than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 8.8%, or 0.8 percentage points lower than the previous year.