2026.02.2406:19:55UTC+00Finnish Jobless Rate at 8-Month High

Finland’s unemployment rate rose to 10.4% in January 2026, up from 9.5% in the same month a year earlier, reaching its highest level since May. The increase was driven by a larger pool of job seekers, as the number of unemployed grew by 26,000 year-on-year to 295,000. Of these, 166,000 were men and 129,000 were women.

The unemployment rate for men climbed 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 worsened: the share of unemployed people aged 15–24 in the labour force rose to 23.7% in January, an increase of 3.6 percentage points from a year ago.

At the same time, the number of employed persons fell by 25,000 to 2.531 million. The labour force participation rate edged down to 67.7% from 67.8% a year earlier, and the employment rate for those aged 20–64 declined to 74.8% from 75.8%.