Number of unemployed jobseekers increases further in May

A total of 432,700 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices at the end of May, said a government press release on Wednesday.

The number was 206,200 higher compared to the number of the stipulated period in the previous year.

The number of unemployed jobseekers, however, was down by 400 from the previous month.

The unemployed jobseekers also includes the people fully laid off.

At the end of May, the number of people laid off was 181,400 in the whole country, which was 167,500 more than at the same time the year before. The number of people fully laid off totalled 158,100, representing an increase of 149,800 from May the year before.

The number of long-term unemployed — that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for more than a year — amounted to 69,800, up 7,400 from the previous year.

The number of new vacancies reported to Employment and Economic Development Offices during May totalled 45,100, or 20,900 fewer than in May the previous year.

In all, the number of unfilled vacancies in May amounted to 96,900, which was 32,200 fewer than a year ago.

Meanwhile, according to the Statistics Finland, in May the number of people in employment was 96,000 less than on the previous year. The employment rate was 70.4%, which was 2.7 percentage points lower than in May the year before.

According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 295,000, which is 46,000 more than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 10.6%, or 1.8 percentage points higher than the previous year.