Number of registered jobseekers drops in Feb

The number of jobseekers registered with the Employment and Economic Development Offices stood at 276,200 at the end of February 2018, according to an official press release.

The number was 56,000 less than one year ago and 9,600 fewer than in January.

Of the registered jobseekers, the number of long-term unemployed, those who had remained jobless without any interruption for at least a year, was 86,500, down by 30,800 from the corresponding date of 2017.

At the end of February, the number of laid-off people in the country stood at 25,000, posting a year-on-year decline of 8,700 people. The number of people fully laid-off stood at 16,900 on the same date, marking a year-on-year decline of 6,400 people.

The new vacancies reported to the Employment and Economic Development Offices in February last totalled 69,100, or 11,800 more than in February 2017. The total number of vacancies reported to the employment agency in February 2018 was 138,500 or 28,600 more than one year ago.

According to the Labour Force Survey report issued by Statistics Finland, in February last, the number of people in employment increased by 79,000 year on year. The employment rate was 69.80 per cent, describing a year-on-year growth of 2.6 percentage points.

According to the survey findings, the total number of unemployed people stood at 233,000 at the end of February, or 9,000 people less than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 8.6 per cent or 0.6 percentage points lower than that on the corresponding date in 2017.