The recent inflation spike seen in Finland has weakened the financial situation of service sector employees to an "unprecedented extent," according to a fresh survey by the sector's main trade union, PAM.
Nearly 45 percent of service industry workers who responded to the survey said their personal financial situation had weakened over the past three months.
That proportion is greater than a similar survey found during the early stages of the Covid crisis, according to Olli Toivanen, PAM's chief economist.
"The effects of the Covid epidemic and restrictions that were imposed were limited to certain consumer services, but this increase in the cost of living affects everyone. Therefore, it is completely understandable that in the current situation an even larger portion of the respondents to our [survey] are saying that their economic situation has weakened," Toivanen said in a statement.
The new survey found that the extent to which workers are seeing economic pressure varied slightly by occupation. For example, more than 48 percent of retail employees said their personal economic situation had worsened while just under 38 percent of respondents in the travel and restaurant industry said so.
Toivanen said there were reasons behind the differences.
"On one hand the inflation crisis has hit them as hard as other low-income earners, but on the other hand, the [hospitality] industry has just reached a new high after the Covid epidemic, which for many means more working hours or new jobs with better pay," Toivanen explained.
Compared to a similar survey last year, worries among hospitality sector workers about the economic condition of their employers have somewhat subsided, with 16.7 percent of respondents saying they think their employers' financial situation will worsen over the next year. In last year's survey that proportion was 24.4 percent.
Meanwhile, survey respondents working in the real estate sector noted positive developments in their vocations, with 22 percent saying that sales had increased. Only 16.8 percent of those workers said that was the case last year.
The survey was carried out during the first half of January and queried 1,271 union members.