Number of unemployed jobseekers decreases in March
Published : 24 Apr 2019, 12:07
A total of 238,300 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices at the end of March.
The number was 25,800 fewer than a year earlier, said a government press release on Wednesday.
The number of unemployed jobseekers was down by 7,500 from the previous month.
The number of long-term unemployed — that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year — amounted to 63,700, down 19,100 on the previous year.
The number of unemployed jobseekers aged over 50 was 90,600, or 11,600 fewer than at the same time a year earlier.
The number of new vacancies reported to Employment and Economic Development Offices during March totalled 73,300, which is 9,600 higher compared to the number in March 2018.
In all, the number of unfilled vacancies in March amounted to 168,500, which was 27,100 more than a year ago.
At the end of March, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 129,900, down 2,100 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, work trials and self-motivated studies.
At the end of March, the number of people laid off was 20,800 in the whole country, which was 2,400 fewer than at the same time the year before. The number of people fully laid off totalled 14,900, representing a decrease of 400 from March the year before.
According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in March the number of people in employment was up 61,000 on the previous year. The employment rate was 71.8%, which was 1.8 percentage points higher than in March the year before. According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 191,000, which is 49,000 fewer than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 7.0%, or 1.8 percentage points lower than the previous year.