Employment rate goes up in 2016

The employment rate grew by 0.6 percentage points in 2016 from 2015, according to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey. The employment rate for the population aged 15 to 64 was 68.7 per cent in 2016. The growth was mainly due to the employment rate of men, which rose by over one percentage point from 68.5 to 69.8 per cent in 2016. Women’s employment rate remained almost unchanged, at 67.6 per cent in 2016. These data derive from Statistics Finland annual review Labour Force Survey 2016, time series data 2007 to 2016.

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, the average number of employed persons in 2016 was 2,448,000, which was 11,000 persons more than in 2015. The number of employed men grew by 18,000, but the number of employed women declined by 6,000.

Unemployment decreased in 2016. In 2016, the average number of unemployed was 237,000, or 15,000 fewer than in the year before. The unemployment rate among persons aged 15 to 74 was, on average, 8.8 per cent in 2016, having been 9.4 per cent in 2015. Men’s unemployment rate was 9.0 per cent and women’s 8.6 per cent. The number of unemployed decreased for the first time since 2012. Young men's unemployment fell particularly.

Although the number of unemployed persons declined, the number of persons in disguised unemployment grew by 11,000 from 2015. In 2016, besides unemployed persons, there were 155,000 persons in the inactive population in so-called disguised unemployment, who would and could have accepted work, but had not looked for it actively. Of them, 85,000 were men and 70,000 women. The number of persons in disguised unemployment rose for the second year to the highest level since statistics on disguised unemployment have been compiled starting from 1997.

The number of persons working part-time grew clearly. In 2016, the number of persons working part-time was 399,000, which was 21,000 more than in 2015. Part-time work increased especially among women.