Number of unemployed jobseekers drops in Aug

The number of unemployed jobseekers decreased by 48,700 from August last year, said the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment in a press release on Tuesday.

At the end of August, a total of 281,000 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices and municipalities participating in the local government pilots on employment.

The number is 48,700 less than a year earlier, but 48,400 more than in August two years ago. The number of unemployed jobseekers was down by 41,500 from the previous month.

At the end of August, the number of people laid off was 35,700 in the whole country, which was 42,100 fewer than at the same time the year before.

The number of people fully laid off totalled 24,600, representing a decrease of 36,400 from August the year before. The number of people fully laid off decreased by 7,800 from July.

The number of long-term unemployed — that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year — amounted to 111,800, up 32,900 on the previous year. The number of unemployed jobseekers aged over 50 was 105,200, or 10,100 fewer than at the same time a year earlier.

The number of new vacancies reported during August totalled 90,100, or 34,500 more than in August the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies in August amounted to 155,300, which is 56,700 more than a year ago.

According to Statistics Finland, in August the number of people in employment was 104,000 more than on the previous year.

The employment rate was 73.4%, which was 3.3 percentage points higher than in August the year before. According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 179,000, which is 33,000 less than a year ago.

The unemployment rate was 6.5%, or 1.4 percentage points lower than the previous year.