Unemployment decreases, employment ups in February

The number of unemployed persons in February 2019 was 200,000, which was 33,000 fewer than one year ago, according to Statistics Finland.

The number of employed persons was 34,000 higher than a year earlier. The trend of the unemployment rate was 6.5 per cent and the trend of the employment rate 72.5 per cent.

In February 2019, the number of employed persons was 2,504,000 (margin of error ±34,000), which was 34,000 more than a year earlier. There were 17,000 more employed men and also 17,000 more employed women than in February 2018.

In February, the employment rate , that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 70.7 per cent, having been 69.8 per cent one year earlier. From the previous year’s February, the employment rate of men aged 15 to 64 rose by 0.9 percentage points to 71.3 per cent and that of women by 0.9 percentage points to 70.1 per cent. Adjusted for seasonal and random variation, the trend of the employment rate was 72.5 per cent.

There were 200,000 unemployed in February 2019 (margin of error ±18,000), which was 33,000 fewer than in one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 113,000 and that of women 87,000.

At 7.4 per cent, the unemployment rate in February was 1.2 percentage points lower than one year earlier. The unemployment rate of men decreased from the previous year by 0.6 percentage points to 8.1 per cent, and that of women by 1.9 percentage points to 6.7 per cent. The trend of the unemployment rate was 6.5 per cent.