Number of unemployed jobseekers decreases in Dec

A total of 256,500 unemployed jobseekers were registered at the Employment and Economic Development Offices at the end of December.

The number was 39,000 fewer than a year earlier, said an official press release.

The number of unemployed jobseekers, however, increased by 27,100 from the previous month.

The number of long-term unemployed — that is those who had been unemployed without interruption for at least a year — amounted to 66,800, which was 24,800 lower than the previous year.

The number of new vacancies reported to Employment and Economic Development Offices during December totalled 45,900, or 5,600 more than in December the previous year. In all, the number of unfilled vacancies at Employment and Economic Development Offices in December amounted to 89,600, which was 11,200 more than a year ago.

At the end of December, the number of people laid off was 21,400 in the whole country, which was 4,100 fewer than at the same time the year before. The number of people fully laid off totalled 15,400, representing a decrease of 2,000 from December the year before.

According to the Labour Force Survey issued by Statistics Finland, in December the number of people in employment was up 84,000 on the previous year. The employment rate was 72.1%, which was 2.5 percentage points higher than in December the year before. According to the Survey, the unemployment total was 146,000, which is 82,000 fewer than a year ago. The unemployment rate was 5.4%, or 3.0 percentage points lower than the previous year.