Finland Times

 

File picture of job seeker at the employment office. Photo Lehtikuva.

There were 40,400 job vacancies in the first quarter of 2014, which was 11 per cent down from one year earlier, according to the Job Vacancy Survey of Statistics Finland.

 

In all, 70 per cent of the openings in the first quarter of 2014 were in private enterprises. 

 

Compared with the corresponding quarter one year earlier, the number of job vacancies decreased, especially in establishments belonging to the industry groups of public administration, education, human health and social work activities (3,900), and trade, transportation and storage, accommodation and food service activities (3,400), the data says. 

 

The number of job vacancies increased in establishments in the industry group of professional, scientific and technical activities, administrative and support service activities (2,500).

 

Examined by region, open job vacancies decreased most in establishments located in the major region of Helsinki-Uusimaa.

 

In the first quarter, employers estimated that 26 per cent of the open job vacancies were hard-to-fill, while one year earlier such posts made up 31 per cent of the vacancies.

 

The share of part-time positions in open vacancies went down by seven percentage points and that of fixed-term positions by six percentage points from one year back, according to the statistics. 

 

Fixed-term jobs open for application were, for example, production workers in manufacturing establishments, salespersons in trade establishments and garden workers for summer jobs in other services.

 

The Statistics Finland has been collecting data on open job vacancies quarterly since 2002.