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Published: 25 August 2020

Number of employed persons decreased and unemployment grew in July

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, the number of employed people was 50,000 lower in July 2020 than one year ago. There were 47,000 more unemployed than in July 2019. The trend of the employment rate was 71.9 per cent and the trend of the unemployment rate was 7.0 per cent.

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2010/07–2020/07, persons aged 15–64

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2010/07–2020/07, 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. This preliminary nature of trend figures should be considered when making conclusions. 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 trend of the employment rate was 71.9 per cent in July and the trend of the unemployment rate was 7.0 per cent.

In July 2020, the number of employed persons was 2,577,000 (margin of error ±36,000), which was 50,000 fewer than a year earlier. There were 34,000 fewer employed men and 16,000 fewer employed women than in July 2019.

The employment rate , that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 73.2 per cent in July, having been 74.5 per cent one year earlier. From the previous year’s July, the employment rate of men aged 15 to 64 fell by 2.2 percentage points to 73.7 per cent and that of women by 0.3 percentage points to 72.8 per cent.

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 216,000 unemployed in July 2020, i.e. 47,000 more than one year earlier (margin of error ±21,000). The number of unemployed men was 113,000 and that of women 102,000.

The unemployment rate was 7.7 per cent in July, having been 6.0 per cent in the year before. The unemployment rate for men rose by 1.9 percentage points from the previous year’s July to 7,8 per cent. The unemployment rate for women rose by 1.4 percentage points to 7.6 per cent.

In July, there were a total of 607,000 young people aged 15 to 24 . Of them, 316,000 were employed and 60,000 unemployed. Thus, the number of young people in the active population, i.e. the employed and unemployed in total, was 376,000. In July, the unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24, that is, the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force, stood at 16.0 per cent, which was 6.6 percentage points higher than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 18.5 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 9.9 per cent.

There were 1,343,000 persons in the inactive population in July 2020, which was 13,000 more than one year earlier. Of the inactive population, 133,000 persons were in disguised unemployment , which was 23,000 more than in July 2019.

Changes in employment 2019/07 – 2020/07 according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

  Year/Month Change
2019/07 2020/07 2019/07 - 2020/07
1000 persons Per cent, %
Population total 4 126 4 136 0,2
Active population total 2 796 2 793 –0,1
Employed 2 628 2 577 –1,9
– employees 2 284 2 248 –1,6
– self-employed persons and unpaid family workers 343 329 –4,0
Unemployed 169 216 27,9
Inactive population 1 330 1 343 1,0
– persons in disguised unemployment 110 133 21,4
  Per cent, % Percentage points
Employment rate, persons aged 15–64 74,5 73,2 –1,3
Unemployment rate 6,0 7,7 1,7
Activity rate 67,8 67,5 –0,2
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 July 2020, there were altogether 387,000 persons registered in accordance with the Employment Office Regulations as unemployed job seekers at the employment and economic development offices . The number of unemployed job seekers was 119,000 higher than in July last year.

Unemployment rose in July from the corresponding period in the previous year in the areas of all Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment: most in Uusimaa (62%), Pirkanmaa (51%), Ostrobothnia (51%), Southwest Finland (46%) and South Ostrobothnia (38%). The number of unemployed job seekers increased least in Kainuu (13%), South Savo (23%) and North Karelia (25%). At the end of July, the number of fully laid off persons registered at the employment and economic development offices was 82,000, which was 71,000 more than twelve months earlier.

The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 94,000 at the end of July, which was 7,000 fewer than in last year's July. Altogether, 3.4 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.

There were 54,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25 registered at the employment and economic development offices. Their number was 17,000 higher than in July of the year before. During this July, 46,000 new vacancies were reported to the employment and economic development offices, which was 6,000 fewer than in July last year.

Changes 2019/07–2020/07 according to the Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

  Year/Month Change
2019/07 2020/07 2019/07 - 2020/07
1000 persons Per cent, %
Unemployed job seekers 269 387 44,1
– unemployed over a year 65 78 19,4
Services, total 101 94 –6,8
– employed 24 21 –12,0
– in labour market training, in training 17 20 19,2
– engaged in work/training trials 7 5 –33,4
– as a job alternation substitute, in rehabilitative work, self-motivated studies supported by unemployment benefit 54 49 –9,1
New vacancies at employment and economic development offices 53 46 –12,0
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.

Contact information for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment:
Petri Syvänen, tel. +358 29 504 8050, Employment bulletin

Links

The new classification of the employer sector was adopted in the Labour Force Survey starting from 1 January 2020. Comparison data according to the new classification of employer sectors for 2019 are published only in the appendix tables of the monthly and quarterly releases.

Labour Force Survey tables in databases

About seasonally adjusted trend

The accuracy of figures and the margins of error 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 2020, July. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Ulla Hannula 029 551 2924, Joanna Viinikka 029 551 3796, tyovoimatutkimus@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

Publication in pdf-format (450.5 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 25.8.2020

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Labour force survey [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-7857. July 2020. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 28.3.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/2020/07/tyti_2020_07_2020-08-25_tie_001_en.html