Employment rate continues to grow in Jan

The number of employed people was 88,000 higher in January 2022 than one year ago, according to Statistics Finland.

The number of unemployed persons was 31,000 fewer in January than a year ago. The trend of the employment rate was 73.5 per cent in January and the trend of the unemployment rate was 7.0 per cent.

According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, the number of unemployed jobseekers decreased by 59,100 from January the year before.

At the end of January, a total of 273,700 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 on Tuesday.

This is 59,100 less than a year earlier, but 22,000 more than in January two years ago. The number of unemployed jobseekers was down by 1,600 from the previous month.

Of the unemployed jobseekers, 144,600 were customers of municipalities participating in the local government pilots on employment. The number of unemployed jobseekers also includes those fully laid off. These figures are from the Employment Bulletin of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

At the end of January, the number of people laid off was 37,900 in the whole country, which was 37,200 fewer than at the same time the year before. The number of people fully laid off totalled 29,100, representing a decrease of 28,600 from January the year before. The number of people fully laid off increased by 3,800 from December.

The number of long-term unemployed — that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year — amounted to 106,000, up 12,500 on the previous year. The number of unemployed jobseekers aged over 50 was 105,100, or 15,800 fewer than at the same time a year earlier.

Unemployed jobseekers aged under 25 numbered 30,000, representing a decrease of 10,300 from January last year. Of the unemployment periods of youths, 59.2 per cent ended before reaching three months in January. This is 7.5 percentage points more than the year before.

The number of new vacancies reported during January totalled 125,100, or 41,500 more than in January the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies in January amounted to 208,100, which is 78,200 more than a year ago.

At the end of January, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 108,900, down 3,300 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, work trials and self-motivated studies.