Almost as many employed and more unemployed persons in December 2023 compared to one year ago

More employed men and fewer employed women than one year ago

In December 2023, the number of employed persons aged 15 to 74 was 2,610,000 (margin of error ±30,000), which was 5,000 higher than a year earlier. There were 17,000 more employed men and 12,000 fewer employed women compared to December of the previous year.

In December, the employment rate among persons aged 20 to 64, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 20 to 64, stood at 77.1 per cent, having been 77.9 per cent in this age group one year earlier. The employment rate of men aged 20 to 64 decreased by 1.0 percentage points to 76.5 per cent, while that of women went down by 0.7 percentage points to 77.6 per cent from one year previously.

The employment rate of persons aged 20 to 69 decreased by 0.4 percentage points from last year's December to 71.5 per cent.

Unemployment increased

According to Statistics Finland's labour force survey, there were 199,000 unemployed (margin of error ±21,000) aged 15 to 74 in December 2023, which was 12,000 higher than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 116,000 and that of unemployed women 83,000.

In December, the unemployment rate of persons aged 15 to 74, or the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force, stood at 7.1 per cent, having been 6.7 per cent one year earlier. The unemployment rate of men stood at 8.0 per cent, which was 0.3 percentage points higher than one year earlier. The unemployment rate of women stood at 6.1 per cent, which was 0.4 percentage points higher than one year ago.

In December, the unemployment rate of people aged 15 to 24 stood at 12.5 per cent, which was 3.6 percentage points lower than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 16.7 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 5.8 per cent.

Number of people in the inactive population almost the same in December 2023 as one year earlier

There were 1,335,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in December 2023, which was 5,000 more than one year earlier. The number of men in the inactive population was 11,000 lower and that of women 16,000 higher than one year earlier.

Seasonally adjusted trend

Employment and unemployment vary quite much by month and the change from the observation of the previous month mainly describes the seasonal aspect rather than the trend in development. Thus, the latest statistical data are compared to the corresponding period of the year before. By contrast, the figures of the trend series that are adjusted for seasonal and random variation are mutually comparable and phenomena associated with long-term development and cyclical changes are thus more easily observable from the trend of the time series.

The trend usually changes somewhat when the data of the following month are included in the time series. Therefore, only the last published time series should be used when using the trend figures. The preliminary nature of the latest trend figures should be considered when making conclusions. The fall in employment in spring 2020 was interpreted as a level shift in the seasonal adjustment model. The figures reported in this release are not adjusted for seasonal variation unless separately mentioned that they concern the trend.

Links

Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment’s Employment bulletin

Comparison between the employment statistics of Statistics Finland and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment (PDF)