Employment rises as unemployment edges down in Finland

Finland’s labour market is showing small signs of improvement, with employment rising and unemployment falling slightly in August, Statistics Finland said, according to Yle.

There were 34,000 more employed people aged 15 to 74 than a year earlier. At the same time, the number of unemployed people fell by 5,000 to 262,000.

Statistics Finland said the change in unemployment was so small that the situation was practically unchanged from a year ago. The direction of development is expected to become clearer in the coming months.

The trend unemployment rate stood at 10.1% in August, while the trend employment rate among people aged 20 to 64 rose to 75.9%.

“Finland’s economy has grown according to several indicators since the beginning of the year. Employment usually follows the development of the wider economy with a delay, so employment could be expected to turn upwards sooner or later,” Tatu Leskinen, senior statistician at Statistics Finland, said in a statement.