Number of unemployed job seekers rises from May but declines YoY

A total of 259,800 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 June.

The number is 56,400 fewer than a year earlier and 24,400 more than in the previous month, said the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment in a press release on Tuesday.

Of the unemployed jobseekers, 142,500, or 21,000 fewer than in June 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 June, the number of people laid off was 18,100 in the whole country, which was 29,200 fewer than at the same time the year before. The number of people fully laid off totalled 12,400, representing a decrease of 21,700 from June the year before. The number of people fully laid off decreased by 400 from May.

The number of long-term unemployed – i.e. those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year – amounted to 95,500, down 16,900 on the previous year.

The number of unemployed jobseekers aged over 50 was 95,200, or 16,400 fewer than at the same time a year earlier.

Unemployed jobseekers under 25 years of age numbered 29,800, representing a decrease of 10,600 from June last year. Of the unemployment periods of youths, 61.3 per cent ended before reaching three months between January and June. This is 3.2 percentage points less than the year before.

The number of new vacancies reported during June totalled 94,300, or 15,300 more than in June the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies in June amounted to 189,700, which is 44,400 more than a year ago.

At the end of June, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 103,400, down 500 on the previous year. These services include pay subsidies, labour market training, rehabilitative work and self-motivated studies.

Meanwhile, according to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in June the number of people in employment was 52,000 more than on the previous year.

The trend of the employment rate was 74.0%, which was 1.8 percentage points higher than in June the year before.

According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 200,000, which is 20,000 less than a year ago. The trend of the unemployment rate was 6.4%, or 1.5 percentage points lower than the previous year.