The number of unemployed job seekers is to drop to 350,000 by the end of this year, according to the Ministry of Employment and the Economy.
The employment rate will improve both this and next year as the ranks of the employed continue to grow in Finland, according to the Ministry of Employment and the Economy.
“The Finnish economy has begun to grow gradually and a turn for the better has taken place also in the labour markets,” says Jari Lindström (PS), the Minister of Justice and Employment. “There is no shortage of challenges, however, especially in tackling long-term unemployment.”
The Ministry of Employment and the Economy estimates in its biannual short-term labour market forecast that the ranks of the employed will grow by 14,000 in 2016 and by 16.000 in 2017, driven partly by a sharp increase in part-time employment. The construction and service sectors are projected to be the sectors to show the greatest up-tick in employment.
The national employment rate will consequently rise to 68.7 per cent in 2016 and to 69.2 per cent in 2017. The unemployment rate, in turn, is expected to drop to 8.9 per cent in 2016 and to 8.7 per cent in 2017.
The Government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä (Centre) is committed to raising the employment rate to 72 per cent by 2019.
The Ministry of Employment and the Economy also forecasts that the number of unemployed job seekers will continue to decrease in the near future – to 350,000 by the end of this year and to 337,000 by the end of next year.
Lindström says he is particularly delighted with the sharp decline in youth unemployment. The number of under 25-year-old unemployed job seekers is forecast to drop by 2,000 to 45,000 by the end of this year and by an additional 3,000 by the end of next year.
Long-term unemployment, on the other hand, remains a problem in Finland.
The Ministry of Employment and the Economy highlights in its press release that the long-term unemployed already account for a record high share, of roughly 35 per cent, of all unemployed. The number of people who have been without a job for at least a year, it adds, is expected to grow by 16,000 year-on-year to 125,000 by the end of 2016.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT Photo: Anni Reenpää – Lehtikuva
