Finland’s unemployment rate<\/a> climbed to 10.2 percent in the second quarter of the year. Over the last two years, 64,000 jobs have been lost, increasing the workload for employment specialists.<\/p>\n“It means the time between contacts can stretch out. You just can’t focus on each person as much as you’d like,” Volmanen said.<\/p>\n
Volmanen meets clients both by phone and in person, aiming to discuss their lives more broadly \u2014 not just their employment. This approach often helps clarify goals and options.<\/p>\n
“The job market is something I can’t directly influence, but at the individual level I can absolutely help and support people so their life takes a more positive turn \u2014 that they find their own place or direction to move towards,” he said.<\/p>\n
Data only indicative<\/p>\n
The figures collected by the KEHA Centre don’t paint a full picture of how heavy the workload is for an individual employment specialist, according to Eero Janhonen, project manager at the agency.<\/p>\n
The statistics reflect the number of jobseekers officially assigned to each advisor. In some regions, team-based assignments record all clients under a single advisor, which inflates the reported ratios. This largely explains the highest figures, according to Janhonen.<\/p>\n
The KEHA Centre has gathered statistics to assess whether resources are sufficient to maintain services amid ongoing changes.<\/p>\n
According to Janhonen, resources appear largely unchanged since the times of the TE Offices. She said time will reveal whether municipalities will increase funding for services or reduce them, potentially impacting staffing levels.<\/p>\n
Janhonen suggests about 100 jobseekers per advisor is reasonable, allowing enough focus on individual needs. She said support varies widely, as employed jobseekers often require less help than those fully unemployed and some require very little help.<\/p>\n
However, it has been a challenge for employment regions to find enough specialists, according to Erja Lindberg, Development Manager at the Association of Finnish Cities and Municipalities.<\/p>\n
Not everyone transferred from the old TE Offices to the new organisations, and hiring new people takes time.<\/p>\n
“There could definitely be more people, especially now that unemployment has risen,” Lindberg said.<\/p>\n
Plan to hire more advisors<\/p>\n
KEHA statistics show Lahti with the highest jobseeker-to-advisor ratio \u2014 up to 256 clients per advisor. However, Maarit Ahom\u00e4ki, unit manager at Lahti’s employment services, said the actual ratio is not nearly as high as the statistic suggests.<\/p>\n
“The total number of clients was divided among a group of advisors that didn’t include everyone. When I checked the current situation, the average ratio is about 160,\u201d Ahom\u00e4ki told Yle.<\/p>\n
According to Ahom\u00e4ki, the holiday season has posed challenges for the new organisation’s operations, but more advisors are planned to be hired in the autumn.<\/p>\n
“The situation could always be better, but we’re managing,” Ahom\u00e4ki said.<\/p>\n
The employment region is already preparing for better times to ensure services run smoothly when the economy \u2014 and with it, the number of jobs \u2014 picks up.<\/p>\n
“Right now, we’re investing in employer services. We’re making sure employers get the support they need because they’re the ones creating jobs.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are big differences in the number of expert resources in employment regions across Finland. In some areas,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[28,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-33854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-jobs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}