There were 45,000 more people in employment in Finland during the month of August compared to one year ago, according to the latest Labour Force Survey carried out by Statistics Finland.
The increase was driven in particular by the number of women in employment, which was up by more than 49,000 compared to last year. There were 4,000 fewer employed men in August compared to the same month last year.
This sets the seasonally-adjusted employment rate trend at 77.8 percent for the 20-64 age group, and 74.1 percent for the 15-64 demographic. Unemployment now stands at 7.2 percent, or just under 250,000 jobseekers.
However, the number of unemployed people was also slightly up on August of 2022, with 5,000 more people out of work.
Economic downturn set to continue
Petri Malinen, an economist with the Federation of Finnish Enterprises, noted that the recent downturn in the construction and manufacturing sectors has not been reflected in the latest employment figures.
"The downturn in the labour market is bound to continue. Finland's slowing economic development and the challenges facing the European economy, our main export region, are not yet reflected in the figures," Malinen said.
Finland's Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment also published its figures on Tuesday, noting that there were 10,400 more jobseekers registered with employment offices across the country during August.
The ministry's figures also showed that there were a total of 114,000 job vacancies available during August, some 61,000 fewer than a year ago.
Finland's largest unemployment fund, the YTK fund, meanwhile reported that unemployment among its membership was up by 1.2 percentage points in August compared to July and by 0.3 compared to August of last year.
"Economic signs are pointing downwards, and the rate of unemployment increased particularly rapidly last month for people aged 55 and over," the fund's CEO Auli Hänninen wrote in a press release.
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