A sharp rise in unemployment has driven many Finnish employers to abandon public job postings, with some reporting applicant numbers in the hundreds for a single position, reveals an article by Yle.
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, fewer than half of all job openings in Finland are now publicly advertised. The rest are filled through informal channels, networks, or internal hiring.
One example is Tampere-based engineering firm Radientum, which recently received 300 applications for just two technical specialist roles. CEO Jukka Sjöstedt said reviewing such volumes can tie up company resources for days.
“For many companies, it’s not practical to post jobs openly when it results in such a flood,” he said.
The pressure has shifted recruitment towards hidden jobs, positions never posted on job boards or public platforms. A survey by unemployment fund YTK earlier this year found that 68 percent of respondents found their most recent job through an unadvertised vacancy.
Statistics Finland reported a 40 percent drop in publicly available job openings in the second quarter compared to the same period last year.
Finland’s unemployment rate now stands at 9.6 percent, the second highest in the European Union after Spain, according to Eurostat.
The latest Labour Force Survey shows 269,000 unemployed people in Finland as of July, an increase of 40,000 from the previous year. Youth unemployment has also worsened, with 41,900 people under 25 unemployed, up by 5,300 from July 2024.
“The number of unemployed young people remained high in July,” said Pertti Taskinen, chief actuary at Statistics Finland. “This was already visible in the lack of summer jobs in June. The outlook for recent graduates is poor.”
Municipalities now face growing financial consequences for prolonged local unemployment. Their share of unemployment benefit payments has risen by over €100 million this year.
In response, municipal employment agencies are proactively searching for hidden jobs. In Tampere, the city’s recruitment services have called 2,000 companies and made 1,000 site visits in 2025 alone.
“In this way, we’ve uncovered many hidden vacancies, and in some cases, helped create them,” Sami Heikkilä, head of Tampere’s employment services told Yle.
He said direct contact with businesses often leads to discussions that reveal hiring needs not yet formalised or posted. Some employers, he added, are open to creating roles when the right candidate is presented.
The competition remains intense across all sectors. Jobseekers frequently report being one of hundreds applying for a single role. According to many applicants, this reality has reshaped expectations and strategies in job searching.
HT
