ETLA for easier recruitment of foreign labour for growth

The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA) predicted on Tuesday that Finland could maintain a two percent economic growth during the next parliamentary period 2019 to 2023.

But it would require cutback in unemployment benefits, cancelation of the general right to sabbaticals, and easier recruitment of foreign labour, the institute noted in a media release.

In its recommendations to the government that would start after the April general election, the institute suggested that the right of long term employees to take up to a year off should be discontinued. In the current system created in the late 1990s, compensation during the sabbatical has nearly matched the unemployment benefits.

ETLA also suggested that the right of people over 60 to get extended unemployment benefits until retirement should be stopped.

The institute urged that the recruitment of persons from outside the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) should be eased through giving up the labour market evaluation requirement. In the current system, the unfeasibility of finding a worker from within the EU and EEA must be verified.

ETLA also suggested that in the future, income transfers collected in taxation should be used to help the lowest income segment. For the rest of the nation, the maintenance of a certain consumption level should rather be based on insurance or borrowing, ETLA envisioned.

ETLA, one of the leading economic research institute in Finland, is closely associated with the industrial and commercial business scene.