Employment rate and number of employed have increased

- Despite removal of jobs to low pay countries

(Helsinki 23.06.2005 - Juhani Artto) In the last few months several large subcontractors of the world's leading mobile telephone producer Nokia have announced significant cuts in their personal in Finland. The list has been topped by Perlos and the Taiwanese-owned Foxconn. They and Nokia's other subcontractors have been in the process of axing thousands of jobs in Finland.

Painful closures and removals of jobs to other countries have taken place also in other industries. A month ago the multinational confectionery manufacturer Leaf announced its plan to shut down its 460 employee plant in Turku. Not long time ago the same city lost 425 jobs when Wärtsilä closed its engine factory.

New announcements of large and small redundancies are published almost daily. Often the closures and personnel reductions are explained by removal of production to China, Estonia or other low pay countries.

The stream of this kind of bad news may make one to believe that unemployment has been rising. However, the trend has been reversed. The latest statistics tell that from May 2004 to May 2005 the number of employed people rose by 39,000. In the same period the employment rate increased from 67.7 to 68.5 per cent. In one year the unemployment rate dropped from 11.6 to 10.2 per cent.

In manufacturing the number of employed had remained unchanged. The changes of employment were tiny also in the construction industry and the transport and communication sector. The employment increased mainly in the service sector and in the agriculture and forestry.

This article was first published in English in Trade Union News in Finland.