Finland Times

 

Job seeker waiting on queue at the employment office. File Photo Lehtikuva.

The unemployment rate in May this year was 11.8 per cent, which was 10.7 per cent in the corresponding month of last year, according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey.

 

The number of unemployed persons in May was 324,000, which was 28,000 higher than one year ago.

 

There were 27,000 fewer employed than in May of the previous year, the data show.

 

The number of persons in the inactive population was 4,000 higher than one year earlier.

 

In May 2015, the number of employed persons was 2,433,000, which was 27,000 lower than a year earlier.

 

There were 18,000 fewer employed men and 9,000 fewer employed women than in May 2014.

 

In May, the employment rate , that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 68.0 per cent, which was 0.8 percentage points lower than one year before, according to the statistics.

 

The employment rate for men decreased by 0.9 percentage points and stood at 68.3 per cent, and that of women by 0.7 percentage points to 67.8 per cent.

 

Adjusted for seasonal and random variation, the trend of the employment rate was 67.9 per cent.

 

The number of unemployed men was 168,000 and that of women 156,000.

 

The number of unemployed women grew by 28,000, while that of unemployed men remained unchanged from May 2014.

 

Men’s unemployment rate was 11.9 per cent and women’s 11.6 per cent. The trend of the unemployment rate was 9.7 per cent.

 

In May, there were a total of 645,000 young people aged 15 to 24. Of them, 263,000 were employed and 150,000 unemployed.

 

The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 23.2 per cent.

 

There were 1,341,000 persons in the inactive population in May 2015, which was 4,000 more than one year earlier. Of the inactive population, 136,000 persons were in disguised unemployment, which was 14,000 more than in May 2014.

 

 At the end of May 2015, there were altogether 330,000 persons registered in accordance with the Employment Office Regulations as job seekers at the employment and economic development offices. The number of unemployed job seekers was 27,000 higher than in May 2014.

 

The number of unemployed job seekers increased in May from the corresponding period in 2014 in the areas of all Employment and Economic Development Centres apart from Kainuu (–0.4%), most in Uusimaa (15%), South Ostrobothnia (11%), Satakunta (10%), South Savo (10%), North Savo (10%), and Ostrobothnia (10%).

 

At the end of May, the number of temporarily laid off persons registered at the employment and economic development offices was 23,000, which was 2,000 more than twelve months earlier.

 

There were 40,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25 registered at the employment and economic development offices. Their number was 2,000 higher than in last year's May.

 

During this May, 39,000 new vacancies were reported to the employment and economic development offices, which is 3,000 more than in May 2014.