Finland

1.Series

Title:

Employment Service statistics.

Starting year:

1991.

2.Agency making the initial registrations of unemployed persons

Name of the agency:

Employment Offices.

Type of agency:

Public service under national, regional and local authorities.

Name of the national authority:

Ministry of Labour.

Location of the local offices making the registrations:

175 employment offices cover the whole country.

Type of services provided/administered by the agency:

  • Assisting job-seekers to find jobs;
  • Assisting job-seekers to establish their own business;
  • Assisting employers to find workers;
  • Vocational guidance;
  • Job-related training;
  • Paying unemployment compensation;
  • Other: labour market training.

    3.The following information is registered about a person:

  • Name;
  • Sex;
  • Social security number (or similar identification number also used by other agencies);
  • Date of birth;
  • Citizenship;
  • Nationality/ethnic group;
  • Educational/vocational attainment, with 5-6 categories distinguished. Links to ISCED have been established;
  • Current/past activity status, with 14 categories distinguished;
  • Type of work (occupation) of past or present job with 3,300 categories distinguished. Links to ISCO-88 have not been established;
  • Type of work (occupation) of job sought, with 3,300 categories distinguished. Links to ISCO-88 have not been established;
  • Type of business (industry) of present/previous employer/workplace. No links to either ISIC, rev.3 or NACE, rev.1 have been established;
  • Previous registrations with the agency/service;
  • Other: registration code for employment.

    4.Criteria used for inclusion of a person in the registers (R) and/or the statistics of unemployed persons (S):

  • Being without work (R) and (S);
  • Seeking work (R) and (S);
  • Availability for work (R) and (S);
  • Age (lower limit: 17 years; upper limit: 65 years) (R) and (S);
  • Citizenship (R) and (S);
  • Being resident in the country (R) and (S);
  • Desired duration of employment and/or number of hours of work sought (R) and (S).

    5.Criteria used for exclusion of a person from the registers (R) and/or the statistics of unemployed persons (S):

  • Death (R) and (S);
  • Taking up residency abroad (R) and (S);
  • Commencement of a (new) job (R) and (S);
  • Commencement of military service (R) and (S);
  • Participation in an employment promotion scheme, public works programme, etc. (R) and (S);
  • Studying or undergoing training (R) and (S);
  • Failure to contact the agency/service (R) and (S);
  • Refusal of one suitable job offer (R) and (S);
  • Refusal of one suitable training offer (R) and (S);
  • End of entitlement to receive unemployment compensation (R) and (S);
  • Receipt of a pension (R) and (S);
  • Inability to work (R) and (S).

    6.Definition of unemployed persons used for the statistics

    All registered job-seekers who are without work and are available for full-time work (defined as work for which the working time is at least half of the normal working time) or have arranged to start a job, but have not yet started it, are unemployed. A job-seeker who can accept a job offered to him/her only after a fixed period or who is seeking only work for which the working time is less than half of the normal working time in the sector is not regarded as an unemployed job-seeker. Full-time students are not recorded as unemployed job-seekers even during holidays.

    7.Updating of the registers

    The registers are updated monthly.

    8.Unemployment rates

    Statistics from the registers are used to obtain unemployment rates.

    The source of data on employed persons who are part of the denominator of the unemployment rates is the Labour Force Survey.

    9.Type of statistics of unemployed persons produced

    Series:

    Employment Service statistics.

    Reference period:

    Month.

    Frequency of production:

    Monthly.

    Descriptive variables used:

  • Sex;
  • Age;
  • Educational level;
  • Occupation;
  • Industry;
  • Geographic characteristics;
  • Previous work experience;
  • Citizenship (nationals/non nationals);
  • Duration of unemployment.

    Form of publication:

  • On paper, for general audience;
  • Machine-readable form, on request;
  • On a website.

    Agency responsible for publication:

    Ministry of Labour.

    10.Methodological information about the statistics

    Form of release:

    On a website (www.mol.fi).

    Agency responsible for the release:

    Ministry of Labour.

    11.Comparisons with unemployment statistics from other sources

    Comparisons have been made with unemployment statistics from the Labour Force Survey, another type of household survey and the Population Census.

    Frequency of the comparisons:

    Occasionally (latest year: 1997).

    Publication of the methodology/results of the comparisons:

    These have been published in Unemployment and Employment Statistics, Statistics Finland, Official Statistics, Labour Market 1997:3.

    12.Major changes since the start of the statistics

    There have been no major changes in legislation, capacity of the agency and/or administrative procedures which had a significant influence on the statistics.