The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Labour gave an interesting presentation about the state of the labour market today that differs somewhat between the rest of the EU.
According to the ministry, unemployment is showing signs of unexpected and strong improvements, despite claims to the contrary by the opposition and the main media. It appears that the government policies are starting to catalyse employment!
The latest estimate for unemployment is that it will fall quickly to 6.7% by 2023 and that the employment rate which has hovered blow 70% for a decade and longer will touch 75% within 2 years. This is good news for the country and good news for the government that has been working systematically to reduce unemployment and increase the employment rate.
In particular, one of the most difficult nuts to crack has been youth unemployment. According to the ministry it is expected to show sharp and unexpected improvements. The ministry expects that the improvement will achieve record levels in the coming 2 years. This is particularly important for Finland when many other countries are seeing high levels of youth unemployment.
One of the most obvious reasons is that Covid-19 has opened the floodgates to distance working and many companies have realised that this can bring productivity improvements, improve the availability of staff when recruiting, and improve staff moral.
