Unemployment continued to grow – Economist: “Darkest before the dawn” –

Central Chamber of Commerce Chief Economist Jukka Appelqvist. Karoliina Vuorenmäki

In September, there were 54,000 fewer employed people aged 15–74 than a year ago, and 30,000 more unemployed people aged 15–74 in September compared to a year ago, Statistics Finland said on Tuesday morning.

In September, there were 2,574,000 employed and 227,000 unemployed.

The unemployment rate for people aged 15–74, i.e. the share of the unemployed in the labor force, was 8.1% in September, compared to 7.0% a year earlier.

Central Chamber of Commerce Chief Economist Jukka Appelqvist says that although fortunately we have already heard more positive news about the Finnish economy, the challenges are not over. “Darkest before the dawn – the transfer of a positive economic turn to the labor market does not happen in an instant,” he captioned his comment.

– Employment reacts to economic downturns with a delay, so it is not surprising that unemployment continues to rise for the time being. Having had to wait until next year for better times, Appelqvist commented in the press release of the Central Chamber of Commerce.

Unemployment rate trend 8.4%

The unemployment rate trend rose to 8.4 percent in September. The last time the trend of the unemployment rate was at the same readings was in January 2018.

– Undoubtedly, unemployment is starting to be a fairly big problem in Finland. At the same time, it is true that employment has remained high despite the prolonged bad economic cycle. The key background factor is the continued exceptionally high work-related immigration, which has supported the workforce despite the difficulties, Appelqvist says.

According to the data published by the Ministry of Labor and Economy on Tuesday, 29,700 new jobs were reported to TE offices in September. In total, 56,200 jobs were open in September, which is as much as 53,100 less than a year ago.

– You can’t be satisfied with the numbers, but it could have been worse, Appelqvist commented on X message services.

Appelqvist says that the low level of job vacancies indicates a prolonged weak economic cycle, which has frozen the demand for labor.

– Companies try to hold on to their workforce as much as possible, but we are careful with new recruitments as long as a positive economic turn is more a promise of economists’ forecasts than a reality in the everyday life of companies, Appelqvist says.

According to the employment overview of the Ministry of Labor and the Economy, there were a total of 279,700 unemployed jobseekers at the end of September. That is 29,900 more than a year earlier and 100 more than in August.

Senior economist at PTT Henna Bush says in his quick comment that unemployment seems to increase towards the end of the year.

– The development of the labor market seems to adapt to what we estimated in the autumn economic forecast. Unemployment will rise toward the end of the year, because economic growth is still low and the construction situation will remain weak until the middle of next year, says Busk.