Unemployment rate continues to rise in Finland in February

The number of unemployed persons aged 15 to 74 was 312,000 (margin of error ±25,000) in February 2026, which was 49,000 more than one year earlier, according to Statistics Finland.

The number of unemployed men was 180,000 and that of unemployed women 133,000.

The number of employed persons was 2,553,000 (margin of error ±30,000), which was also 24,000 more than one year earlier.

There were 29,000 more employed men and 4,000 fewer employed women than in February last year.

The trend of the employment rate among persons aged 20 to 64 was 75.8 per cent. The trend of the unemployment rate among persons aged 15 to 74 was 10.5 per cent.

In February, the non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of persons aged 15 to 74, or the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force stood at 10.9 per cent, having been 9.4 per cent one year earlier.

The unemployment rate of men stood at 11.9 per cent, which was 1.8 percentage points higher than one year before.

The unemployment rate of women stood at 9.8 per cent, which was 1.1 percentage points higher than in the previous year.

In February, the share of the unemployed aged 15 to 24 among the labour force stood at 24.6 per cent, which was 0.7 percentage points higher than one year earlier.

The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 22.9 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 12.1 per cent.

Meanwhile, there were 1,309,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in February 2026, which was 64,000 fewer than one year earlier.

There were 56,000 fewer men and 7,000 fewer women in the inactive population than one year earlier.