Photo: Sami Kelhä, Ilmarinen
- Previous Article Linnanmäki amusement park begins summer job recruitment
- Next Article In Finland, men across age groups are more likely to want children than women
Finland is witnessing a significant downturn in workforce numbers, with the Ilmarinen economic index revealing a nearly 3% drop in December compared to the previous year. This trend is particularly pronounced in certain sectors such as personnel leasing and construction, and is more acute in regions like Eastern and Northern Finland.
The Ilmarinen economic index, a tool for gauging the state of Finland’s economy, reflects changes among over 60,000 companies and around 500,000 employees.
In December, the employee count fell by 2.8%, a sharper decline than the 2.3% observed in November. Remarkably, the only sector showing growth was communication and information technology, which saw a modest increase of 0.5%.
This negative trend in the Ilmarinen index accelerated in December, indicating that employment is a lagging indicator in an economic downturn. “Finland is facing challenging times, with high inflation in major EU countries and rapid public debt accumulation. We are already in a recession, and the situation is not helped by declining industrial orders and exports. However, current forecasts suggest that this downturn may be relatively short-lived, depending on the global economy and major players like the United States,” says Jouni Vatanen, a researcher at Ilmarinen.
For employees, the start of the year does not bring much positive news. The mistrust between trade unions and the government and the emphasis on wage moderation in salary negotiations add to the challenges.
The sectors with the most significant declines according to the index were personnel leasing (-13.0%), construction (-9.8%), hospitality (-4.4%), trade (-3.2%), transportation (-2.5%), and industry (-0.8%).
“The low level of new housing starts has inevitably led to a decrease in employment in the construction sector. This contraction is also impacting other sectors like personnel leasing, logistics, and services,” Vatanen analyzes.
Regionally, all areas experienced a decrease in workforce numbers in December, with the steepest drop in Eastern Finland (-5.2%) and the smallest in Western Finland (-3.2%).
In Southern Finland, while there was growth in industry and communication and IT sectors, other sectors like personnel leasing, construction, hospitality, transportation, and trade were on the decline. Western Finland saw a similar pattern, with growth only in communication, IT, and industry.
Eastern Finland faced declines across all monitored sectors, including personnel leasing, hospitality, trade, construction, industry, transportation, and communication and IT. In Northern Finland, the only growth was observed in transportation, while other sectors, including personnel leasing, construction, industry, and communication and IT, declined.
The Ilmarinen economic index has been published since 2013 and is based on data from over 60,000 customer companies across various sectors reporting their payroll information to the income register. The index reflects changes in employee numbers compared to the previous year and considers companies that have been Ilmarinen’s clients throughout the observation period.
HT
- Previous Article Linnanmäki amusement park begins summer job recruitment
- Next Article In Finland, men across age groups are more likely to want children than women
Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
