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Published: 25 May 2021

Employment improved in April compared to one year ago

Corrected on 27 July 2021. Up-to-date trend figures can be found in the latest release. The corrections are indicated in red.

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, the number of employed people was 29,000 higher in April 2021 than one year ago. There were 48,000 more unemployed persons than in April 2020. The trend of the employment rate was 71.3 per cent and the trend of the unemployment rate was 7.6 per cent.

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2011/04–2021/04, persons aged 15–64

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2011/04–2021/04, persons aged 15–64

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. 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. Find out more about the trend here .

The data content, data collection and estimation method of the Labour Force Survey were revised at the beginning of 2021. Starting from the release for March and the first quarter of 2021, the data according to the new estimation method are final. The most important key figures of the time series according to the new method are published in the StatFin database service. Other reviewed time series will be published during 2021.

The final Labour Force Survey data concerning January and February 2020 and 2021 have been published in connection with the data for March and the 1st quarter.

In April 2021, the number of employed persons was 2,475,000 (margin of error ±30,000), which was 29,000 more than a year earlier. There were 18,000 more employed men and 11,000 more employed women than in April 2020.

In April, the employment rate , that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 70.1 per cent, having been 69.6 per cent one year earlier. From last year’s April, the employment rate of men aged 15 to 64 rose by 0.6 percentage points to 70.6 per cent and that of women by 0.3 percentage points to 69.5 per cent. The employment rate among persons aged 20 to 69 was 68.9 per cent, which was 68.0 per cent one year ago.

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, there were 262,000 unemployed in April 2021, which was 48,000 more than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 149,000 and that of women 113,000 .

In April, the unemployment rate , the proportion of the employed among the labour force stood at 9.6 per cent, having been 8.0 per cent one year earlier. From last year’s April, men’s unemployment rate rose by 1.7 percentage points to 10.4 per cent and women’s by 1.3 percentage points to 8.7 per cent.

In April, the unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 24 stood at 27.7 per cent, which was 2.7 percentage points more than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 18.9 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 14.1 per cent.

There were 1,385,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in April 2021, which was 88,000 fewer than one year earlier.

Changes in employment 2020/04 – 2021/04 according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74 (Table was corrected on 27 July 2021.)

  Year/Month Change
2020/04 2021/04 2020/04 - 2021/04
1000 persons Per cent, %
Population total 4 133 4 123 –0,2
Active population total 2 660 2 737 2,9
Employed 2 446 2 475 1,2
– employees 2 122 2 137 0,7
– self-employed persons and unpaid family workers 324 338 4,5
Unemployed 214 262 22,5
Inactive population 1 473 1 385 –5,9
  Per cent, % Percentage points
Employment rate, persons aged 15–64 69,6 70,1 0,4
Employment rate, persons aged 20–69 68,0 68,9 0,9
Unemployment rate 8,0 9,6 1,5
Activity rate 64,4 66,4 2,0
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.
The data comply with the ILO/EU definition.


Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

At the end of April 2021, there were altogether 318,000 persons registered in accordance with the Employment Office Regulations as job seekers at the employment and economic development offices and in local government pilots. The number of unemployed job seekers was 115,000 lower than in April 2020.

Unemployment fell in April from the corresponding period last year in the areas of all Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment: most in South Ostrobothnia (-41%), Ostrobothnia (-37%) and Southwest Finland (-32%). The number of unemployed job seekers declined least in Uusimaa (-21%), Central Finland (-22%) and Häme (-22%). At the end of April, the number of fully laid off persons was 54,000, which was 110,000 fewer than twelve months earlier.

The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 117,000 at the end of April, which was 6,000 more than in April of the year before. Altogether, 4.3 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.

There were 39,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25. Their number was 18,000 lower than in last year's April. During April, 76,000 new vacancies were reported, which was 26,000 more than in April last year.

Changes 2020/04–2021/04 according to the Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

  Year/Month Change
2020/04 2021/04 2020/04 - 2021/04
1000 persons Per cent, %
Unemployed job seekers 433 318 –26,5
– unemployed over a year 67 110 62,8
Services, total 111 117 5,4
– employed 22 26 18,4
– in labour market training, in training 24 27 13,2
– engaged in work/training trials 6 6 6,2
– as a job alternation substitute, in rehabilitative work, self-motivated studies supported by unemployment benefit 60 58 –2,6
New vacancies at employment and economic development offices 50 76 52,0
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.

Contact information for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment:
Petri Syvänen, tel. +358 29 504 8050, Employment bulletin

Links

Labour Force Survey tables in databases :

Monthly tables 135y and 135z contain the retrospectively corrected time series that replace monthly tables 11af and 11ag transferred to the archive of the StatFin statistical database.

The quarterly and annual tables have not yet been corrected retrospectively.

About seasonally adjusted trend

The accuracy of figures are explained in the quality description of the Labour Force Survey .

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

Job vacancy survey

The latest seasonally adjusted employment figures published by the EU and
the latest data on open job vacancies published by the EU can be found on
Eurostat's home page http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat .


Source: Labour force survey 2021, April. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Tatu Leskinen 029 551 3285, Kirsi Toivonen 029 551 3535, tyovoimatutkimus@stat.fi

Head of Department in charge: Hannele Orjala

Publication in pdf-format (405.0 kB)

Tables

Tables in databases

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Appendix tables

Figures
Quality descriptions

Updated 25.05.2021

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Labour force survey [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-7857. April 2021. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 28.3.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/2021/04/tyti_2021_04_2021-05-25_tie_001_en.html