Increase of unemployment slowing down, figures still record-high

Statistics show that the unemployment in Finland increased on all levels of education last year. However, the increase started to slow down in December 2009. According to the Employment Service Statistics, the total number of unemployed jobseekers amounted to 296,000 people at the end of January 2010. The number of laid-offs totalled 68,000, up 8000 from the previous year.

Akava's unemployment review of December 2009 also indicated that the increase in unemployment started to slow down at the end of last year. However, unemployment among those with a master's degree or equivalent is higher than ever before. At the end of December 2009,  the number of unemployed among those with a master's degree or equivalent amounted to 11,759.  The corresponding figure for the previous year was  9,586, which translates into an increase of nearly 2,200 unemployed on this educational level.

Graduate unemployment increased remarkedly last year. At the end of December 2009,  a total of 1,565 graduates were unemployed, i.e. of thos who graduated from the lower degree level within a year. There was an increase of almost 45 per cent from the figure of the previous year (1,080). The biggest single reason for graduate unemployment is that the student intakes are too high some fields. 

According to Statistics Finland’s Labour Force Survey, unemployment grew in 2009, and the unemployment rate started to go up for the first time since 1994, reaching 8.2 per cent. Thus, unemployment rate rose to the level where it was in 2005. The decline in employment affected especially men and the industry of manufacturing.

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