Number of unemployed persons drops in March

A total of 250,700 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices and municipalities at the end of March.

The number is 80,800 fewer than a year earlier and 14,900 fewer than in the previous month, said the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment in a press release on Monday.

At the end of March, the number of people laid off was 28,600 in the whole country, which was 50,900 fewer than at the same time the year before.

The number of people fully laid off totalled 21,000, representing a decrease of 41,800 from March the year before. The number of people fully laid off decreased by 5,900 from February.

The number of unemployed jobseekers aged under 25 was 26,300, representing a decrease of 14,300 from March last year. Of the unemployment periods of youths, 60.2 per cent ended before reaching three months between January and March. This is 5.3 percentage points more than the year before.

The number of new vacancies reported during March totalled 126,200, or 48,500 more than in March the previous year. The total number of unfilled vacancies amounted to 259,100 in March, which was 96,600 more than a year ago.

At the end of March, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 114,200, down 2,900 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, work trials and self-motivated studies.

Meanwhile, according to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in March the number of people in employment was 77,000 more than on the previous year.

The trend of the employment rate was 73.7%, which was 2.6 percentage points higher than in March the year before.

The unemployment total was 192,000, which is 31,000 less than a year ago. The trend of the unemployment rate was 6.6%, or 1.4 percentage points lower than the previous year.