Unemployment rate reduces slightly

The number of unemployed persons in the country was 242,000 in January this year, which was slightly lower than one year ago, according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey.

The unemployment rate was 9.2 per cent, having been 9.3 per cent in January of the year before, said a press release of the Statistics Finland.

There were 6,000 more employed in January this year compared to the January of the previous year.

The number of persons in the inactive population was 5,000 lower than one year earlier.

In January 2017, the number of employed persons was 2,391,000 (margin of error ±33,000), which was 6,000 higher than a year earlier. There were 26,000 more employed men and 20,000 fewer employed women than in January 2016.

In January, the employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 67.0 per cent, having been 66.8 per cent one year earlier.

The employment rate for men grew by 1.4 percentage points from last year’s January to 68.0 per cent. The employment rate for women fell by 1.0 percentage points to 65.9 per cent. Adjusted for seasonal and random variation, the trend of the employment rate was 68.9 per cent.

According to the survey, there were 242,000 unemployed in January 2017 (margin of error ±19,000), which was slightly fewer than one year before. The number of unemployed men was 123,000 and that of women 119,000.

At 9.2 per cent, the unemployment rate in January was 0.1 percentage points lower than one year earlier. Men’s unemployment rate was 9.0 per cent and women’s 9.4 per cent. The trend of the unemployment rate was 8.6 per cent.

In January, there were a total of 633,000 young people aged 15 to 24 . Of them, 207,000 were employed and 63,000 unemployed. The number of young people in the active population, i.e. the employed and unemployed in total, was 270,000. In January, the unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24, that is, the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force, stood at 23.5 per cent, which was 2.3 percentage points higher than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 20.3 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 10.0 per cent.

There were 1,475,000 persons in the inactive population in January 2017, which was 5,000 lower than one year earlier. Of the inactive population, 162,000 persons were in disguised unemployment , which was 15,000 lower than in January 2016.

At the end of January 2017, there were altogether 343,000 persons registered in accordance with the Employment Office Regulations as unemployed job seekers at the employment and economic development offices . The number of unemployed job seekers was 25,000 lower than in January 2016, according to Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

Unemployment fell in January from the corresponding period in 2016 in the areas of all Employment and Economic Development Centres: most in Kainuu (–16%), South Ostrobothnia (–13%), North Savo (–9%) and Lapland (–9%). At the end of January, the number of temporarily laid off persons registered at the employment and economic development offices was 24,000, which was 7,000 fewer than twelve months earlier.

The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 122,000 at the end of January, which was 7,000 more than in January of the previous year. Altogether, 4.6 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.

There were 43,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25 registered at the employment and economic development offices. Their number was 5,000 lower than in January of the year before. During this January, 58,000 new vacancies were reported to the employment and economic development offices, which was 6,000 more than in January 2016.