Number of unemployed jobseekers’ slides in February Y-o-Y

A total of 258,100 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices and municipalities at the end of February, said the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment in a press release on Tuesday.

The number of unemployed jobseekers is 7,500 fewer than a year earlier and the same level as in the previous month.

Of the unemployed jobseekers, 140,800, or 400 more than in February 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.

At the end of February, the number of people laid off was 30,600 in the whole country, which was 4,800 fewer than at the same time the year before.

The number of people fully laid off totalled 24,300, representing a decrease of 2,600 from February the year before. The number of people fully laid off increased by 1,900 from January.

The number of long-term unemployed, those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year — totalled 85,100, down 18,700 on the previous year.

The number of unemployed jobseekers aged over 50 was 95,800, or 7,500 fewer than at the same time a year earlier.

The number of unemployed jobseekers aged under 25 totalled 27,000, representing a decrease of 1,200 from February last year.

Of the unemployment periods of youths, 55.9 per cent ended before reaching three months in February. This is 1.7 percentage points fewer than the year before.

The number of new vacancies reported during February totalled 92,000, or 30,500 fewer than in February the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies in February was 198,400, which is 44,000 fewer than a year ago.

According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in February the number of people in employment was 12,000 more than on the previous year.

The trend of the employment rate was 74.2%, which was 0.5 percentage points higher than in February the year before.

According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 186,000, which is 1,000 more than a year ago. The trend of the unemployment rate was 6.8%, or 0.1 percentage points higher than the previous year.