Altogether, around 78,000 employees have been affected this year by cooperation procedure talks with employers. In most cases, these talks are a prelude to staff cuts. The figures were collected by the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK.
Unemployment has shown a very slight decline in Finland over the past year, but that is mainly due to people leaving the labour market. The latest figures from Statistics Finland, released on Tuesday, put unemployment at the end of August at 7.1 percent - down by 0.2 percentage points over the year.
9,000 fewer active job seekers were unemployed, but the number of people in the workforce fell by 40,000.
"Even though the global economy looks to be slightly picking up and exports are starting to take off, this will not be immediately reflected in Finnish employment. I fear that unemployment will get a bit worse," says SAK Director of employment and sustainable growth Matti Tukiainen.
At present the most unemployed are to be found in the industrial sector, with over 60,000 registered unemployed and only 3,000 jobs currently on offer. In contrast, there are 23,000 people unemployed in the retail sector and 6,500 jobs available.
