Number of unemployed jobseekers decreases in June

A total of 254,200 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices at the end of June. The number was 18,600 fewer than the number of jobseekers in June 2018, said an official press release.

The number of unemployed jobseekers, however, increased by 27,600 from the previous month.

Typical of the summer period, the increase was brought about by the entry into the labour market of the young graduates from various education institutions and termination of certain fixed-term employment contracts for the summer months.

The number of long-term unemployed — that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year — amounted to 63,800, down 13,300 on the previous year. The number of unemployed jobseekers over 50 years of age was 89,500, or 7,200 fewer than at the same time a year earlier.

The number of new vacancies reported to Employment and Economic Development Offices during June totalled 52,600, or 2,500 more than in June the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies at Employment and Economic Development Offices in June amounted to 110,000, which was 7,200 more than a year ago.

At the end of June, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 110,100, down 3,900 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, work trials and self-motivated studies.

At the end of June, the number of people laid off was 14,800 in the whole country, which was 1,200 fewer than at the same time the year before. The number of people fully laid off totalled 9,500, representing an increase of 100 from June the year before.

According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in June the number of people in employment was same amount than on the previous year. The employment rate was 75.7%, which was 0.2 percentage points higher than in June the year before.

According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 176,000, which is 16,000 fewer than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 6.2%, or 0.5 percentage points lower than the previous year.