Over a quarter of a million people were out of work in Finland last month, bringing the country’s unemployment rate to its highest level since Statistics Finland began compiling the Labour Force Survey in 2009.
Open image viewer
File photo. Image: Jorge González / Yle
The number of unemployed people in Finland rose to 267,000 during August, according to the latest Labour Force Survey — a monthly report published by Statistics Finland (SF). This is an increase of 23,000 people from the situation in August last year, pushing the number over the quarter-of-a-million mark.
The latest figures mean that Finland’s unemployment rate trend for people aged 15 to 74 — which SF adjusts for seasonal and random variation — climbed to 10 percent, the highest level since the number-crunching agency began compiling the survey in 2009.
“The unemployment rate has never been this high in the current trend series for the labour force survey,” SF senior statistician Joanna Viinikka confirmed.
Finland’s unemployment rate has been ticking steadily upwards since the spring of 2023, when it stood at 6.8 percent, and the rate was the second highest in the EU in July. In August, the unemployment rate itself — meaning the proportion of unemployed people in the labour force — was 9.3 percent, having stood at 7.5 percent in August 2024.
The unemployment rate (9.3 percent in August) shows the percentage of the labour force without a job but actively seeking one, while the unemployment rate trend (10 percent in August) tracks the change over time in that proportion, and measures whether unemployment is generally increasing or decreasing.
The latest survey also found that the non-seasonally adjusted employment rate stood at 76.2 percent in August, down from 76.9 during the same month last year. This rate refers to the proportion of employed people among those aged 20 to 64.
The All Points North podcast looked into how to navigate Finland’s jobs market maze earlier this year. Listen to the episode via this embedded player, on Yle Areena, via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
How do you find a job in Finland?
How do you find a job in Finland?