More open job vacancies in country in Q1

There were 58,000 open job vacancies in the country in the first quarter of 2017, while the figure was 48,000 one year before, according to the Job Vacancy Survey of Statistics Finland.

The shares of fixed-term and part-time jobs in open vacancies remained almost unchanged.

In the first quarter of 2017, in all, 45,500 or 78 per cent of the job vacancies were in establishments owned by private enterprises, while one year earlier the corresponding share was 81 per cent. The number of job vacancies grew compared with one year back primarily in establishments with 10 to 49 employees and in the major region of Northern and Eastern Finland. When examined by the industry of the establishment, job vacancies increased most in the industry groups of other services (R, S) and construction (F).

Employers estimated that 29 per cent of the open job vacancies in the first quarter were hard-to-fill, which is nearly the same share as one year before.

Construction establishments had most jobs considered hard to fill.

The shares of part-time and fixed-term positions in open job vacancies were also close to the level one year ago. Of all open vacancies, 22 per cent were part-time and 57 per cent fixed-term jobs. The share of fixed-term jobs is usually high in the first quarter due to the search for summer employees, for example. There were plenty of fixed-term jobs available in manufacturing and trade establishments, for instance.

Statistics Finland has been collecting data on open job vacancies quarterly since 2002. The inquiry is directed to persons responsible for recruitment in private and public sector establishments. The data provider can respond either using the web questionnaire or through a telephone interview. The data collection includes approximately 2,500 different establishments in every quarter. The statistics are based on Regulation (EC) No 453/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The objective is to produce up-to-date and comparable information about the number and structure of job openings on the labour markets of EU Member States.