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Published: 26 October 2021

Growth in employment slowed down in September

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, the number of employed people was 17,000 higher in September 2021 than one year ago. In the third quarter, the number of employed persons was 61,000 higher than one year ago. The number of unemployed persons was 11,000 lower in September than one year ago. In September, the trend of the employment rate was 72.5 per cent and the trend of the unemployment rate was 7.6 per cent.

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2011/09–2021/09, persons aged 15–64

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2011/09–2021/09, persons aged 15–64

Employment and unemployment vary quite considerably by month and the change from the observation of the previous month mainly describes the seasonal aspect rather than the trend in development. Thus, the latest statistical data are compared to the corresponding period of the year before. By contrast, the figures of the trend series that are adjusted for seasonal and random variation are mutually comparable and phenomena associated with long-term development and cyclical changes are thus more easily observable from the trend of the time series.

The trend usually changes somewhat when the data of the following month are included in the time series. The preliminary nature of the latest trend figures should be considered when making conclusions. The drop in employment in spring 2020 was interpreted as a level shift in the seasonal adjustment model. The figures reported in this release are not adjusted for seasonal variation unless separately mentioned that they concern the trend. Find out more about the trend here .

The data content, data collection and estimation method of the Labour Force Survey were revised at the beginning of 2021. The most important key figures from the revised time series have been published in the StatFin database service. All revised time series will be published during 2021.

In September 2021, the number of employed persons was 2,527,000 (margin of error ±34,000), which was 17,000 higher than a year earlier. There were 20,000 fewer employed men and 37,000 more employed women than in September 2020.

In September, the employment rate of persons aged 15 to 64, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 71.7 per cent, having been 71.3 per cent one year earlier. From the previous year’s September, the employment rate of men aged 15 to 64 fell by 1.5 percentage points to 71.3 per cent and that of women rose by 2.5 percentage points to 72.2 per cent.

The employment rate of people aged 20 to 69 was 69.7 per cent, having been 69.4 per cent twelve months earlier.

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 191,000 unemployed (margin of error ±21,000) in September 2021, i.e. 11,000 fewer than the year before. The number of unemployed men was 106,000 and that of women 86,000.

The unemployment rate , or the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force, was 7.0 per cent in September, having been 7.5 per cent in the year before. From last year’s September, men’s unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 7.5 per cent and women’s unemployment rate declined by 0.8 percentage points to 6.5 per cent.

In September, the unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 24 stood at 10.3 per cent, which was 3.9 percentage points lower than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 16.1 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 4.8 per cent.

There were 1,404,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in September 2021, which was 17,000 fewer than one year earlier.

Changes in employment 2020/09 – 2021/09 according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

  Year/Month Change
2020/09 2021/09 2020/09 - 2021/09
1000 persons Per cent, %
Population total 4 134 4 122 –0,3
Active population total 2 713 2 718 0,2
Employed 2 510 2 527 0,7
– employees 2 165 2 171 0,3
– self-employed persons and unpaid family workers 345 356 3,2
Unemployed 203 191 –5,6
Inactive population 1 421 1 404 –1,2
  Per cent, % Percentage points
Employment rate, persons aged 15–64 71,3 71,7 0,5
Employment rate, persons aged 20–69 69,4 69,7 0,2
Unemployment rate 7,5 7,0 –0,4
Activity rate 65,6 65,9 0,3
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.
The data comply with the ILO/EU definition.

Labour Force Survey data for the third quarter of 2021

In the third quarter (July to September) of 2021, the average number of employed persons was 2,580,000, or 61,000 more than in the corresponding quarter of 2020. The number of employed persons increased most in wholesale and retail trade (G).

The number of hours worked by employed persons was 974.9 million in the third quarter of 2021, which was 0.7 per cent more than twelve months earlier.

The average number of unemployed persons in the third quarter of 2021 was 191,000, which was 16,000 fewer than in the July to September period of 2020. The  unemployment rate in the third quarter of 2021 was 6.9 per cent, which was 0.7 percentage points lower than one year earlier.

In the third quarter of 2021, the number of persons in the inactive population was 1,352,000, which was 58,000 fewer than a year earlier.

Changes in employment 2020/III – 2021/III according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

  Year/Quarter Change
2020/III 2021/III 2020/III - 2021/III
1000 persons Per cent (%)
Active population total 2 726 2 771 1,7
Employed persons total 2 519 2 580 2,4
Unemployed total 207 191 –7,8
– men 108 101 –5,8
– women 99 89 –10,0
Inactive population 1 410 1 352 –4,1
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.
The data comply with the ILO/EU definition.


Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

At the end of September 2021, there were altogether 265,000 persons registered in accordance with the Employment Office Regulations as unemployed job seekers at the employment and economic development offices and in local government pilots. The number of unemployed job seekers was 50,000 lower than in last year's September.

Unemployment fell in September from the corresponding period last year in the areas of all Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment: most in Ostrobothnia (-30%), South Ostrobothnia (-24%), Pirkanmaa (-24%) and Satakunta (-23%). The number of unemployed job seekers declined least in Kainuu (-7%), Häme (-10%) and Central Finland (-10%). At the end of September, the number of fully laid off persons was 21,000, which was 36,000 fewer than twelve months earlier.

The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 111,000 at the end of September, which was 3,000 fewer than in September of the previous year. Altogether, 4.1 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.

There were 29,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25. Their number was 9,000 lower than in last year’s September. During September, 97,000 new vacancies were reported, which is 38,000 more than in September last year.

Changes 2020/09–2021/09 according to the Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

  Year/Month Change
2020/09 2021/09 2020/09 - 2021/09
1000 persons Per cent, %
Unemployed job seekers 316 265 –16,0
– unemployed over a year 81 109 34,9
Services, total 114 111 –2,8
– employed 23 28 24,1
– in labour market training, in training 26 22 –14,9
– engaged in work/training trials 6 6 –5,1
– as a job alternation substitute, in rehabilitative work, self-motivated studies supported by unemployment benefit 58 54 –7,5
New vacancies at employment and economic development offices 58 97 66,3
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.

Contact information for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment:
Employment bulletin

Links

Labour Force Survey tables in databases

About seasonally adjusted trend

The accuracy of figures are explained in the quality description of the Labour Force Survey .

Comparison between the employment statistics of Statistics Finland and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

Job vacancy survey

The latest seasonally adjusted employment figures published by the EU and
the latest data on open job vacancies published by the EU can be found on
Eurostat's home page http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat .


Source: Labour force survey 2021, September. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Pertti Taskinen 029 551 2690, Tatu Leskinen 029 551 3285, tyovoimatutkimus@stat.fi

Head of Department in charge: Hannele Orjala

Publication in pdf-format (603.0 kB)

Tables

Tables in databases

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Appendix tables

Figures
Quality descriptions

Updated 26.10.2021

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Labour force survey [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-7857. September 2021. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 19.4.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/2021/09/tyti_2021_09_2021-10-26_tie_001_en.html