Unemployment rate reduces to 7.5% in July

The unemployment rate in the country was reduced to 7.5 percent in July this year compared to 7.8 per cent in July 2016, according to the Statistics Finland.

The number of unemployed persons in July 2017 was 207,000, which was 6,000 lower than one year ago, said a press release.

There were 31,000 more employed in July this year than in July of the previous year. The number of persons in the inactive population was 18,000 lower than one year before.

In July 2017, the number of employed persons was 2,556,000 (margin of error ±33,000), which was 31,000 more than a year earlier. There were 42,000 more employed men and 10,000 fewer employed women than in July 2016.

The employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 72.0 per cent, having been 71.1 per cent one year earlier.

The employment rate for men rose by 2.2 percentage points from last year’s July to 74.6 per cent. The employment rate for women fell by 0.5 percentage points to 69.4 per cent.

In July, there were a total of 628,000 young people aged 15 to 24. Of them, 352,000 were employed and 47,000 unemployed.

There were 1,352,000 persons in the inactive population in July 2017, which was 18,000 fewer than one year earlier.