63,100 job vacancies remain open in Q1

There were 63,100 open job vacancies in the first quarter of 2019, while the figure was 60,100 one year before, according to Statistics Finland.

The share of part-time vacancies of all open vacancies decreased compared to the previous year. These data derive from Statistics Finland's statistics on open job vacancies and describe the situation on the first day of March.

In the first quarter of 2019, in all, 43,400 or 69 per cent of the job vacancies were in establishments owned by private enterprises. Compared with the corresponding period of the previous year, the number of open job vacancies increased especially in the local government sector (+3,700) and in establishments with 10 to 49 employees (+3,900). When examined by the industry of the establishment, job vacancies increased most in the industry groups of public administration, education, human health and social work activities (O-Q), and manufacturing, mining and quarrying and other industry (B-E), and decreased especially in the industry group of trade, transportation and storage, accommodation and food service activities (G-I).

In the first quarter, 18 per cent of the job vacancies were part-time, while the corresponding share one year earlier was 26 per cent. The decreased share of part-time vacancies is partly explained by job vacancies increasing in such industries, where there were relatively few part-time jobs. Around one-half of all open vacancies were fixed-term, as in the corresponding period of the previous year. The share of fixed-term jobs is usually high in the first quarter due to the search for summer employees, for example.

There were plenty of fixed-term jobs available in health and social work (Q), trade (G) and manufacturing (C) establishments, for instance. Of all job vacancies, employers estimated that 43 per cent were hard to fill, which is close to the level one year earlier. For example, establishments in health and social work (Q) and construction (F) had plenty of jobs considered hard-to-fill.

Statistics Finland has been collecting data on open job vacancies quarterly since 2002. The inquiry is directed to persons responsible for recruitment in private and public sector establishments .