Finland Times

The unemployment rate stood at 8.8 per cent, which was 7.9 per cent in December the year before.

In December 2014, the number of employed persons was 2,413,000, which was slightly more than a year earlier, the data show.

The unemployment rate in the fourth quarter (October to December) was 8.4 per cent, or 0.7 percentage points higher than in the respective quarter of 2013. 

The number of employed persons increased slightly in the public sector and decreased somewhat in the private sector compared with December 2013, according to the statistics.

Women’s employment rate was 66.8 per cent, almost unchanged from in December 2013.   

In December, there were a total of 649,000 young people aged 15 to 24. Of them, 238,000 were employed and 59,000 unemployed.

The number of hours worked by employed persons was 1.6 per cent higher than in the fourth quarter of 2012.