Number of employed and unemployed people grew in February 2024 compared to the previous year

Employment rate fell from the previous year

In February 2024, the number of employed aged 15 to 74 was 2,593,000 (margin of error ±29,000), which was 11,000 more than a year earlier. The number of employed men was nearly unchanged and that of employed women 9,000 higher compared to February last year.

In February, the employment rate, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 20 to 64, stood at 76.9 per cent, having been 77.7 per cent in this age group one year earlier. The employment rate of men aged 20 to 64 fell by 0.8 percentage points to 76.5 per cent and that of women went down by 0.8 percentage points to 77.3 per cent from one year ago.

The employment rate of persons aged 20 to 69 fell by 0.2 percentage points from last year's February to 71.3 per cent.

Unemployment grew both among men and women compared to last year

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 220,000 unemployed (margin of error ±20,000) aged 15 to 74 in February 2024, which was 34,000 more than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 127,000 and that of unemployed women 93,000.

In February, the unemployment rate of persons aged 15 to 74, or the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force stood at 7.8 per cent, having been 6.7 per cent one year earlier. The unemployment rate of men stood at 8.9 per cent, which was 0.9 percentage points higher than one year previously. The unemployment rate of women stood at 6.7 per cent, which was 1.3 percentage points higher than one year before.

In February, the unemployment rate of people aged 15 to 24 stood at 16.8 per cent, which was 3.6 percentage points more than one year earlier. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 16.9 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 7.5 per cent.

Number of people in the inactive population decreased from one year ago

There were 1,335,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in February 2024, which was 22,000 lower than one year earlier. There were 4,000 fewer men and 17,000 fewer women in the inactive population 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)