Experts say Finland’s latest budget will not quickly reduce unemployment

Finland’s government has taken no measures in its final budget that would have an immediate impact on unemployment, experts told Yle’s morning programme.

Finland continues to have the highest unemployment rate among EU countries, according to Eurostat, the European Commission’s statistical office. The country has topped the statistics continuously since February.

Statistics Finland reported 289,000 unemployed people in July.

Johanna Wallenius, a professor of economics at the Stockholm School of Economics, said the state of Finland’s public finances also ruled out large and expensive employment measures.

Measures already taken by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government to adjust public finances and promote employment will take time to show up in employment figures, Wallenius said. The economic cycle will also affect the figures.

When the government began its term, it set a target of creating 100,000 new jobs. In January, National Coalition Party deputy chair Karoliina Partanen acknowledged on Yle’s A-studio that the government would not reach the target.

Mauri Kotamäki, chief economist at Finnvera, said employment should be assessed through the number of jobs created by policy decisions rather than solely through the employment rate.

This would show how many jobs particular measures generate over the long term and filter out the effects of the economic cycle, over which the government has only limited influence, Kotamäki said.

He said the government had taken measures that promote employment and that he would not yet abandon its employment target altogether.

“It is important to remember that this is the government’s final budget session. That also places certain limitations on it,” Kotamäki said.

The government completed its latest budget on September 1.