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Published: 22 February 2022

Employment continued to grow in January

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, the number of employed people was 88,000 higher in January 2022 than one year ago. The number of unemployed persons was 31,000 fewer in January than a year ago. The trend of the employment rate was 73.5 per cent in January and the trend of the unemployment rate was 7.0 per cent.

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2012/01–2022/01, persons aged 15–64

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2012/01–2022/01, persons aged 15–64

Employment and unemployment vary quite much 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 fall 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 corrected time series have been published in the StatFin database service.

In January 2022, the number of employed persons was 2,533,000 (margin of error ±32,000), which was 88,000 higher than a year earlier. There were 28,000 more employed men and 60,000 more employed women than in January 2021.

In January, the employment rate , that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 71.5 per cent, having been 69.1 per cent one year earlier. From January last year, the employment rate for men aged 15 to 64 increased by 1.7 percentage points to 71.7 per cent and women’s employment rate by 3.0 percentage points to 71.3 per cent. The employment rate of people aged 20 to 69 was 70.5 per cent, having been 68.0 per cent in the year before.

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 205,000 unemployed in January 2022 (margin of error ±22,000), i.e. 31,000 fewer than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 109,000 and that of women 97,000.

In January, the unemployment rate , the proportion of the employed among the labour force stood at 7.5 per cent, having been 8.8 per cent one year earlier. From the previous year’s January, men’s unemployment rate fell by 1.6 percentage points to 7.7 per cent and women’s by 1.0 percentage points to 7.3 per cent.

In January, the unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 24 stood at 16.2 per cent, which was 5.4 percentage points lower than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 15.0 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 7.1 per cent.

There were 1,383,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in January 2022, which was 62,000 fewer than the one year earlier.

Changes in employment 2021/01 – 2022/01 according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

Year/Month Change
2021/01 2022/01 2021/01 - 2022/01
1000 persons Per cent, %
Population total 4 127 4 122 –0,1
Active population total 2 682 2 739 2,1
Employed 2 445 2 533 3,6
– employees 2 105 2 186 3,8
– self-employed persons and unpaid family workers 340 348 2,2
Unemployed 237 205 –13,2
Inactive population 1 445 1 383 –4,3
Per cent, % Percentage points
Employment rate, persons aged 15–64 69,1 71,5 2,4
Employment rate, persons aged 20–69 68,0 70,5 2,5
Unemployment rate 8,8 7,5 –1,3
Activity rate 65,0 66,4 1,5
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 January 2022, there were altogether 274,000 persons registered in accordance with the Employment Office Regulations as job seekers at the employment and economic development offices and in local government pilots. The number of unemployed job seekers was 59,000 lower than in January of the previous year.

Unemployment fell in January from the corresponding period last year in the areas of all Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment: most in Ostrobothnia (-28%), Lapland (-24%), South Ostrobothnia (-22%), Pirkanmaa (-21%) and Satakunta (-19%). The number of unemployed job seekers declined least in South Savo (-12%), Kainuu (-13%), Central Finland (-13%), Häme (-13%) and North Karelia (-14%). At the end of January, the number of fully laid off persons was 29,000, which was 29,000 fewer than twelve months earlier.

The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 109,000 at the end of January, which was 3,000 fewer than in January of the previous year. Altogether, 4.0 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.

There were 30,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25. Their number was 10,000 lower than in January of the year before. During January, 125,000 new vacancies were reported, which was 41,000 more than in the previous year's January.

Changes 2021/01–2022/01 according to the Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

Year/Month Change
2021/01 2022/01 2021/01 - 2022/01
1000 persons Per cent, %
Unemployed job seekers 333 274 –17,8
– unemployed over a year 93 106 13,4
Services, total 112 109 –3,0
– employed 23 28 25,4
– in labour market training, in training 25 22 –14,9
– engaged in work/training trials 6 6 –2,8
– as a job alternation substitute, in rehabilitative work, self-motivated studies supported by unemployment benefit 58 53 –8,9
New vacancies at employment and economic development offices 84 125 49,6
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment’s Employment bulletin

Links

Labour Force Survey tables in databases

About seasonally adjusted trend

The accuracy of figures is 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 2022, January. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Ulla Hannula 029 551 2924, Kirsi Toivonen 029 551 3535, tyovoimatutkimus@stat.fi

Head of Department in charge: Hannele Orjala

Publication in pdf-format (422.2 kB)

Tables

Tables in databases

Pick the data you need into tables, view the data as graphs, or download the data for your use.

Appendix tables

Figures
Quality descriptions

Updated 22.2.2022

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Labour force survey [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-7857. January 2022. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 16.4.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/2022/01/tyti_2022_01_2022-02-22_tie_001_en.html