Number of unemployed job seekers slides in August

A total of 243,300 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices at the end of August, which was 45,400 fewer than a year earlier, according to the Employment Bulletin of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

The number of unemployed jobseekers was down by 40,800 from the previous month, said an official press release.

The number of long-term unemployed — that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year — amounted to 73,300, down 29,000 on the previous year.

The number of new vacancies reported to Employment and Economic Development Offices during August totalled 59,000, or 7,700 more than in August the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies at Employment and Economic Development Offices in August amounted to 104,400, which was 15,300 more than a year ago.

At the end of August, the number of persons covered by services included in the activation rate amounted to 118,500, up 6,000 on the previous year.

At the end of August, the number of people laid off was 12,700 in the whole country, which was 4,900 fewer than at the same time the year before.

The number of people fully laid off totalled 6,800, representing a decrease of 2,500 from August the year before.

According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in August the number of people in employment was up 64,000 on the previous year. The employment rate was 72.6%, which was 2.1 percentage points higher than in August the year before.

According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 186,000, which is 16,000 fewer than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 6.8%, or 0.7 percentage points lower than the previous year.