Number of unemployed jobseekers drops in Feb

The number of unemployed jobseekers decreased by 61,500 in February, said the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment in a press release on Tuesday.

At the end of February, a total of 265,600 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices and municipalities participating in the local government pilots on employment.

This is 61,500 less than a year earlier, but 17,400 more than in February two years ago. The number of unemployed jobseekers was down by 8,100 from the previous month.

Of the unemployed jobseekers, 140,800 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 February, the number of people laid off was 35,300 in the whole country, which was 37,300 fewer than at the same time the year before. The number of people fully laid off totalled 26,800, representing a decrease of 28,800 from February the year before. The number of people fully laid off decreased by 2,300 from January.

The number of long-term unemployed — that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year — amounted to 103,800, up 7,700 on the previous year.

The number of unemployed jobseekers aged over 50 was 103,300, or 16,700 fewer than at the same time a year earlier.

The number of unemployed jobseekers aged under 25 totalled 28,200, representing a decrease of 10,700 from February last year.

Of the unemployment periods of youths, 57.6 per cent ended before reaching three months between January and February. This is 5.9 percentage points less than the year before.

The number of new vacancies reported during February totalled 122,400, or 43,800 more than in February the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies in February amounted to 242,400, which is 81,800 more than a year ago.

At the end of February, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 111,400, down 3,800 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 February the number of people in employment was 89,000 more than on the previous year.

The trend of the employment rate was 74.0%, which was 3.3 percentage points higher than in February the year before. According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 185,000, which is 40,000 less than a year ago.

The trend of the unemployment rate was 6.8%, or 1.2 percentage points lower than the previous year.