Radio | Newsweek in plain Finnish | 4.10.2025

Finland’s unemployment situation

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Unemployment situation in Finland

The topic of the news week is the unemployment situation in Finland.

There are now more unemployed people in Finland than in almost any other European country.

Finland’s unemployment rate is over 10 percent. This means that ten out of every hundred people of working age are unemployed.

Only in Spain is unemployment higher than in Finland.

We will now tell you more about the unemployment situation in Finland.

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Finland’s unemployment rate is the second highest in Europe. The situation in Sweden is almost as bad. The highest unemployment rate is in Spain. Photo: Nanna Särkkä / Yle

Finland and Sweden

Unemployment has increased in Finland at the same time as the situation has already improved in many other EU countries.

The situation in Sweden is also almost as bad as in Finland.

Previously, unemployment was highest in Southern European countries.

Reasons for the increase in unemployment in Finland include, for example, the impact of the war in Ukraine on the Finnish economy and the fact that more EU stimulus money has gone to Southern European countries than to Northern European countries.

Government actions

Minister of Labor Matias Marttinen admits that Finland’s unemployment figures are bad.

Minister Marttinen believes that the situation will start to improve already this year.

Marttinen says the government intends to reform the labor market and taxation. The aim is to attract more investments and jobs to Finland.

The Ministry of Labor is now preparing a growth package, which will be submitted to the government in the near future.

Salary growth

Experts say that the unemployment situation in Finland is not as bad as the unemployment rate alone suggests.

The wage bill, i.e. the total amount of all wages, has increased in Finland since last year.

The number of hours worked in Finland has not decreased as much as the unemployment rate suggests.

The employment rate has not declined as sharply.

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Minister of Labor Matias Marttinen believes that employment will start to improve already this year. Photo: Johanna Lehtola / Yle

Growth in job seekers

The unemployment rate can also rise when the labor force grows and more new job seekers enter the labor market.

Recently, the number of job seekers has increased for two reasons.

One reason is that many new immigrants looking for work have come to Finland in recent years.

Another reason is that the government has increased measures that encourage or pressure people to look for work.

Repetition

The topic of the news week was the unemployment situation in Finland.

Finland now has the second highest number of unemployed people in Europe.

However, not all unemployment figures mean that people have lost their jobs.

The number of job seekers has also increased due to immigration and new job search requirements.

The government is trying to take steps to create new jobs in Finland.

This was a news week in plain Finnish. See you again, let’s hear from you!