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Published: 25 January 2022

Clearly more employed persons in December than one year before

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, the number of employed people was 128,000 higher in December 2021 than one year previously. The number of unemployed persons was 16,000 fewer in December than a year ago. The trend of the employment rate was 73.5 per cent in December and the trend of the unemployment rate was 7.0 per cent.

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2011/12–2021/12, persons aged 15–64

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2011/12–2021/12, 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 December 2021, the number of employed persons was 2,595,000 (margin of error ±32,000), which was 128,000 more than a year earlier. There were 65,000 more employed men and 63,000 more employed women than in December 2020.

In December, the employment rate , that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 73.3 per cent, having been 70.0 per cent one year earlier. From the previous year’s December, the employment rate of men aged 15 to 64 rose by 3.2 percentage points to 73.7 per cent and that of women went up by 3.5 percentage points to 73.0 per cent. The employment rate of people aged 20 to 69 was 71.5 per cent, having been 68.4 per cent in the year before.

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 187,000 unemployed in December 2021 (margin of error ±22,000), i.e. 16,000 fewer than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 105,000 and that of women 82,000.

In December the unemployment rate , the proportion of the employed among the labour force stood at 6.7 per cent, having been 7.6 per cent one year earlier. From the previous year’s December, men’s unemployment rate fell by 1.3 percentage points to 7.2 per cent and women’s by 0.4 percentage points to 6.2 per cent.

In December, the unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 24 stood at 10.5 per cent, which was 8.4 percentage points lower than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 15.1 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 5.0 per cent.

There were 1,340,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in December 2021, which was 118,000 fewer than one year earlier.

Changes in employment 2020/12 – 2021/12 according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

Year/Month Change
2020/12 2021/12 2020/12 - 2021/12
1000 persons Per cent, %
Population total 4 129 4 123 –0,1
Active population total 2 671 2 782 4,2
Employed 2 467 2 595 5,2
– employees 2 099 2 222 5,9
– self-employed persons and unpaid family workers 369 373 1,1
Unemployed 203 187 –7,9
Inactive population 1 458 1 340 –8,1
Per cent, % Percentage points
Employment rate, persons aged 15–64 70,0 73,3 3,3
Employment rate, persons aged 20–69 68,4 71,5 3,1
Unemployment rate 7,6 6,7 –0,9
Activity rate 64,7 67,5 2,8
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.
The data comply with the ILO/EU definition.

Labour Force Survey data for the fourth quarter of 2021

The average number of employed in the fourth quarter of 2021 (October to December) was 2,577,000, which was 87,000 more than in the corresponding quarter of 2020. The number of employed persons grew most in wholesale and retail trade (G).

The number of hours worked by employed persons was 1,053.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, which was 1.8 per cent more than one year ago.

The average number of unemployed persons in the fourth quarter of 2021 was 173,000, which was 25,000 fewer than in the October to December period of 2020. The unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2021 was 6.3 per cent, which was 1.1 percentage points lower than a year earlier.

In the fourth quarter of 2021, the number of persons in the inactive population was 1,372,000, which was 70,000 fewer than a year earlier.

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

Year/Quarter Change
2020/IV 2021/IV 2020/IV - 2021/IV
1000 persons Per cent (%)
Active population total 2 688 2 750 2,3
Employed persons total 2 490 2 577 3,5
Unemployed total 198 173 –12,6
– men 112 98 –12,2
– women 86 75 –13,2
Inactive population 1 442 1 372 –4,9
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.
The data comply with the ILO/EU definition.

Labour Force Survey annual averages for 2021

In 2021, the average number of employed persons was 2,555,000, which was 60,000 more than in 2020. In 2021, the employment rate was 72.3 per cent, having been 70.7 per cent in 2020.

The unemployment rate in 2021 was 7.7 per cent, i.e. at the same level as in 2020. In 2021, the average number of unemployed persons was 212,000.

The number of hours worked by employed persons was 1.8 per cent higher in 2021 than in 2020.

The annual averages from the Labour Force Survey for the year 2021 are published in the appendix tables of this publication and in the database tables of Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey :

Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

At the end of December 2021, there were altogether 275,000 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 82,000 lower than in the previous year's December.

Unemployment fell in December from the corresponding period of the previous year in the areas of all Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment: most in Ostrobothnia (-37%), South Ostrobothnia (-29%), Pirkanmaa (-28%), Southwest Finland (-27%) and Satakunta (-26%). The number of unemployed job seekers declined least in Kainuu (-13%), Central Finland (-18%), North Karelia (-18%), Häme (-19%) and South Savo (-19%). At the end of December, the number of fully laid off persons was 25,000, which was 52,000 fewer than twelve months earlier.

The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 104,000 at the end of December, which was 3,000 lower than in December of the previous year. Altogether, 3.7 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.

There were 31,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25. Their number was 13,000 lower than in December of the previous year. During December, 91,000 new vacancies were reported, which was 40,000 more than in the previous year's December.

Changes 2020/12–2021/12 according to the Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

Year/Month Change
2020/12 2021/12 2020/12 - 2021/12
1000 persons Per cent, %
Unemployed job seekers 357 275 –23,0
– unemployed over a year 92 107 16,7
Services, total 108 104 –3,2
– employed 23 28 22,6
– in labour market training, in training 24 20 –15,5
– engaged in work/training trials 5 5 –3,9
– as a job alternation substitute, in rehabilitative work, self-motivated studies supported by unemployment benefit 56 51 –8,4
New vacancies at employment and economic development offices 50 91 79,7
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 2021, December. 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 (714.1 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 25.1.2022

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Labour force survey [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-7857. December 2021. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 29.3.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/2021/12/tyti_2021_12_2022-01-25_tie_001_en.html