Unemployment rate slides to 6.9% in Nov

The number of people in employment was 62,000 more in November than the previous year, according to Statistics Finland.

The trend of the employment rate was 72.8%, which was 1.8 percentage points higher than in November the year before.

The unemployment total was 164,000, which is 24,000 less than a year ago. The trend of the unemployment rate was 6.9%, or 1.3 percentage points lower than the previous year.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment on Tuesday said that the number of unemployed jobseekers decreased by 61,800 from November last year.

At the end of November, a total of 252,700 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices and municipalities participating in the local government pilots on employment, said the Ministry in a press release.

This is 61,800 less than a year earlier, but 24,100 more than in November two years ago. The number of unemployed jobseekers was down by 6,300 from the previous month.

Of the unemployed jobseekers, 134,900 were customers of municipalities participating in the local government pilots on employment. The number of unemployed jobseekers also includes those fully laid off.

At the end of November, the number of people laid off was 27,800 in the whole country, which was 48,600 fewer than at the same time the year before. The number of people fully laid off totalled 18,600, representing a decrease of 39,300 from November the year before. The number of people fully laid off decreased by 1,100 from October.

The number of long-term unemployed — that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year — amounted to 106,200, up 20,900 on the previous year.

The number of new vacancies reported during November totalled 93,100, or 43,700 more than in November the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies in November amounted to 168,100, which is 76,800 more than a year ago.

At the end of November, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 115,000, down 5,200 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, work trials and self-motivated studies.