Number of unemployed jobseekers on wane in May

A total of 235,400 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices and municipalities participating in the local government pilots on employment at the end of May.

The number is 65,800 fewer than a year earlier and 3,400 fewer than in the previous month, said a government press release on Tuesday.

Of the unemployed jobseekers, 131,000, or 23,500 fewer than in May a year ago, were customers of municipalities participating in the local government pilots on employment.

The number of unemployed jobseekers also includes those fully laid off. These figures are from the Employment Bulletin of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

At the end of May, the number of people laid off was 18,100 in the whole country, which was 37,900 fewer than at the same time the year before. The number of people fully laid off totalled 12,000, representing a decrease of 29,200 from May the year before. The number of people fully laid off decreased by 4,600 from April.

The number of long-term unemployed — i.e. those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year — amounted to 95,300, down 15,600 on the previous year. The number of unemployed jobseekers aged over 50 was 91,400, or 19,100 fewer than at the same time a year earlier.

Unemployed jobseekers under 25 years of age numbered 24,900, representing a decrease of 11,200 from May last year. Of the unemployment periods of youths, 61.4 per cent ended before reaching three months between January and May. This is 5.0 percentage points more than the year before.

The number of new vacancies reported during May totalled 111,700, or 30,800 more than in May the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies in May amounted to 221,600, which is 66,800 more than a year ago.

At the end of May, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 112,600, down 800 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, rehabilitative work and self-motivated studies.

According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in May the number of people in employment was 61,000 more than on the previous year.

The trend of the employment rate was 73.9%, which was 2.0 percentage points higher than in May the year before.

According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 227,000, which is 68,000 less than a year ago. The trend of the unemployment rate was 6.1%, or 1.8 percentage points lower than the previous year.