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Published: 27 July 2021

Number of employed persons increased clearly in June

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, the number of employed people was 121,000 higher in June 2021 than one year ago. There were 7,000 more unemployed than in June 2020. The trend of the employment rate was 72.4 per cent and the trend of the unemployment rate was 7.9 per cent.

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2011/06–2021/06, persons aged 15–64

Employment rate and trend of employment rate 2011/06–2021/06, persons aged 15–64

Employment and unemployment vary quite considerably 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 drop 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. The most important key figures from the revised time series have been published in the StatFin database service. All revised time series will be published during 2021.

In June 2021, the number of employed persons was 2,677,000 (margin of error ±33,000), which was 121,000 more than a year earlier. There were 45,000 more employed men and 76,000 more employed women than in June 2020.

In June, the employment rate of persons aged 15 to 64, that is, the proportion of the employed among persons aged 15 to 64, stood at 75.8 per cent, having been 72.8 per cent one year earlier. The employment rate of men aged 15 to 64 rose by 1.3 percentage points to 76.3 per cent and that of women by 4.6 percentage points to 75.2 per cent from last year’s June. The employment rate of people aged 20 to 69 was 72.3 per cent, having been 69.6 per cent twelve months earlier.

According to Statistics Finland's Labour Force Survey, there were 220,000 (margin of error ±24,000) unemployed in June 2021, i.e. 7,000 more than one year earlier. The number of unemployed men was 125,000 and that of women 95,000.

The unemployment rate , or the proportion of the unemployed among the labour force, was 7.6 per cent in June, having been 7.7 per cent in the year before. From last year’s June, men’s unemployment rate rose by 0.8 percentage points to 8.3 per cent and women’s unemployment rate declined by 1.1 percentage points to 6.9 per cent.

In June, the unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 24 stood at 16.0 per cent, which was 4.7 percentage points lower than one year previously. The trend of the unemployment rate among young people was 18.7 per cent. The share of unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 among the population in the same age group was 10.9 per cent.

There were 1,225,000 persons aged 15 to 74 in the inactive population in June 2021, which was 140,000 fewer than one year earlier.

Changes in employment 2020/06 – 2021/06 according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

  Year/Month Change
2020/06 2021/06 2020/06 - 2021/06
1000 persons Per cent, %
Population total 4 135 4 123 –0,3
Active population total 2 770 2 898 4,6
Employed 2 556 2 677 4,7
– employees 2 202 2 289 3,9
– self-employed persons and unpaid family workers 354 389 9,7
Unemployed 214 220 3,1
Inactive population 1 365 1 225 –10,3
  Per cent, % Percentage points
Employment rate, persons aged 15–64 72,8 75,8 2,9
Employment rate, persons aged 20–69 69,6 72,3 2,8
Unemployment rate 7,7 7,6 –0,1
Activity rate 67,0 70,3 3,3
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.
The data comply with the ILO/EU definition.

Labour Force Survey data for the second quarter of 2021

In the second quarter (April to June) of 2021, the average number of  employed persons was 2,585,000, which was 106,000 higher than in the corresponding period of 2020. The number of employed persons increased most in wholesale and retail trade (G).

The number of hours worked by employed persons was 1,042.0 million in the second quarter of 2021, which was 7.5 per cent more than twelve months earlier.

The average number of unemployed persons in the second quarter of 2021 was 256,000, which was 16,000 more than in April to June 2020. The  unemployment rate in the second quarter of 2021 was 9.0 per cent, which was 0.2 percentage points higher than one year earlier.

In the second quarter of 2021, the number of persons in the inactive population was 1,282,000, which was 134,000 fewer than a year earlier.

Changes in employment 2020/II – 2021/II according to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, population aged 15 to 74

  Year/Quarter Change
2020/II 2021/II 2020/II - 2021/II
1000 persons Per cent (%)
Active population total 2 719 2 841 4,5
Employed persons total 2 479 2 585 4,3
Unemployed total 240 256 6,5
– men 129 146 13,0
– women 111 110 –1,0
Inactive population 1 415 1 282 –9,4
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 June 2021, there were altogether 316,000 persons registered in accordance with the Employment Office Regulations as unemployed job seekers at the employment and economic development offices and in local government pilots. The number of unemployed job seekers was 101,000 lower than in June last year.

Unemployment fell in June from the corresponding period last year in the areas of all Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment: most in Ostrobothnia (-35%), South Ostrobothnia (-33%), and Pirkanmaa (-30%). The number of unemployed job seekers declined least in Uusimaa (-20%), Häme (-21%) and Central Finland (-21%). At the end of June, the number of fully laid off persons was 34,000, which was 83,000 fewer than twelve months earlier.

The number of persons engaged in services included in the activation rate totalled 104,000 at the end of June, which was 6,000 more than in June of the year before. Altogether, 3.6 per cent of the labour force was covered by labour market policy services.

There were 40,000 unemployed job seekers aged under 25. Their number was 18,000 lower than in last year's June. During June, 79,000 new vacancies were reported, which is 31,000 more than in June last year.

Changes 2020/06–2021/06 according to the Employment Service Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

  Year/Month Change
2020/06 2021/06 2020/06 - 2021/06
1000 persons Per cent, %
Unemployed job seekers 417 316 –24,1
– unemployed over a year 75 112 49,6
Services, total 98 104 5,7
– employed 21 28 32,9
– in labour market training, in training 22 20 –7,4
– engaged in work/training trials 5 6 22,0
– as a job alternation substitute, in rehabilitative work, self-motivated studies supported by unemployment benefit 50 49 –1,6
New vacancies at employment and economic development offices 48 79 65,6
Unrounded figures are used in the Change column.

Contact information for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment:
Heikki Räsänen, tel. +358 29 504 7118, Employment bulletin

Links

Labour Force Survey tables in databases

Changes in the StatFin database:

Changes to Labour Force Survey database tables on 27 July 2021, 1 June 2021 and 4 May 2021.

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, June. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Pertti Taskinen 029 551 2690, Ulla Hannula 029 551 2924, tyovoimatutkimus@stat.fi

Head of Department in charge: Hannele Orjala

Publication in pdf-format (612.1 kB)

Tables

Tables in databases

Pick the data you need into tables, view the data as graphs, or download the data for your use.

Appendix tables

Figures
Quality descriptions
Revisions in these statistics

Updated 27.7.2021

Referencing instructions:

Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Labour force survey [e-publication].
ISSN=1798-7857. June 2021. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 19.4.2024].
Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tyti/2021/06/tyti_2021_06_2021-07-27_tie_001_en.html