Statistics Finland just released new information about employment and unemployment in Finland in 2022. In this blog post, we’ll give you some highlights from the report.
These facts and figures are from the Labor force survey of Statistics Finland. These numbers describe labor market participation of that part of the population that is between 15 and 89 years old. There are monthly, quarterly, and annual figures. Statistics Finland publishes monthly and quarterly data only for the 15-74 year-olds who are working age.
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Employment and Unemployment in Finland in 2022
In 2022, Finland had ca. 5 555 000 residents. Of them, 4 120 000 (74 %) were 15-74 years old. So, around 4.1 million people are of working age in Finland. However, 24 % of them are actually outside the workforce. They are not currently working nor are they looking for work. This includes students, persons on family leave, the disabled, etc.
The size of the Finnish workforce is thus only 2 809 000 persons. This means that 51 % of 15-74 year-old Finnish residents make up the workforce in Finland. 47 % of this age group are currently working while 3 % are not.
The official unemployment rate in Finland in 2022, however, was 6.8 %. The unemployment rate is calculated from the workforce rather than the whole age group. This means that around 190 000 of the 2 809 000 were not in an employment relationship in 2022. The unemployment rate came down by 0.9 % percentage points from 2021.
According to Statistics Finland, 65 000 more people were employed last year than the previous year. 22 000 fewer were unemployed. The employment rate of 15-64 year-old Finnish residents was 73.8 % in 2022. This is an improvement of 1.6 percentage points from 2021.
The employment rate of men aged 15-64 was 73.9 % in 2022. For similarly-aged women, it was 73.8 %. Women’s employment rate saw a bigger increase than men’s. Women’s employment rate rose by 2.1 % while men’s rose by 1.1 %.
Let’s look closer at employment and unemployment in Finland in 2022 and discuss employment-related figures by different demographic groups.
A closer look by age groups
Employment rates of all age groups within this larger age group rose in 2022. There are, however, large differences in the employment rates of different age groups. For example, the 65-74 year-olds clearly have the lowest employment rate. This is natural since so many of them are actually outside the workforce completely as they have retired. About 13 % of them are actually employed.
Also, the 15-24 year-olds have a relatively low employment rate. Their employment rate stands at around 45 %. This is to a large part due to their studying. About 7 % (45 000) of youth this age are not in employment, education, or training.
The 35 to 44 year-olds have the highest employment rate at 85.9 %. The 45 to 54 year-olds are a close second with an employment rate of 85.2 %.
Part-time work is common for workers at both ends of the age spectrum. 50 % of employed 15-24 year-olds work part-time. Of the 65-74 year-olds, 61 % worked part-time.
A closer look by gender
In 2022, women’s employment rate rose more than men’s. As we have discussed before, women’s employment rate suffered more than men’s during the pandemic. Conversely, more women found employment in 2022 than men. The number of women employed rose by 46 000 in 2022 while the number of men rose only by 19 000.
Again, we can search for at least a partial explanation of this from the gender segregation of the Finnish labor market. The hospitality industry saw the largest increase in new employees in Finland in 2022 with 14 000 new employees. 70 % of employees in that industry are female.
Women in Finland are more likely to work in part-time employment as we have discussed before. 24 % of all women work part-time. 13 % of men do. Part-time employment quite often goes together with particular stages of life. For example, younger people often work part-time because they are also studying. Older people might prefer a partial retirement to full-time employment. However, about 21 % of part-time employees would want to have full-time employment. Of them, about 64 % are women.
In 2022, there were 390 000 employees with fixed-term contracts in Finland. This is 25 000 more than last year. Of them, 57 % are women. Of all women employees, 20 % have fixed-term employment contracts. For men, their share is around 15 %.
67 % of part-time employees stated the lack of full-time employment as a reason why they have a fixed-term contract. 59 % of those who said so were women.
In 2022, 516 000 employees had been in their current employment relationship for less than a year. 47 % of these employment relationships were fixed-term relationships. 43 % of men’s new employment relationships were fixed-term. For women, the same is true for 51 % of new employment relationships.
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