Finnish Jobless Rate at 8-Month High

Finland’s unemployment rate rose to 10.4% in January 2026 from 9.5% in the same month last year. This marked the highest reading since May, driven by a rise in the number of unemployed persons, which grew by 26,000 year-on-year to 295,000. Of that total, 166,000 were men and 129,000 were women. The jobless rate for men rose to 11.5%, 1.3 percentage points higher than a year earlier, while the rate for women increased to 9.4%, up 0.6 percentage points. Youth unemployment also rose, with the share of unemployed people aged 15–24 in the labour force reaching 23.7% in January, 3.6 percentage points higher than a year ago. Meanwhile, the number of employed persons decreased by 25 thousand to 2.531 million, while the labor force participation rate edged down to 67.7% from 67.8% a year ago. The employment rate for persons aged 20-64 declined to 74.8% from 75.8%.