This is a tough time to be a jobseeker in Finland.
Finland's unemployment rate hit nearly 9 percent in the second half of 2024, and the number of job openings advertised by prospective employers has plunged.
While all this amounts to an already challenging environment, an extensive study published earlier this week found that foreigners in Finland face another hurdle — discrimination based purely on their name.
"I think Finnish people are sometimes afraid, they're prejudiced, sometimes they're blatantly racist, and due to those attitudes, they shut the door in front of people who otherwise would have been able to give so much potential and so much excellent input into the companies, into Finnish work life, into Finnish society," Aicha Manai, CEO of Startup Refugees, tells the show.
Listen to the episode via this embedded player, on Yle Areena, via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
We also examine what people can do to improve their chances of landing a job, with Ricardo Gutierrez — who was a lawyer in his native Mexico — telling APN about his decision to retrain as an electrician.
"I feel that I was pretty brave, and I made a good decision. I'm very happy with this career," Gutierrez says. "It's never too late and this country is very good for that, you can always change your career and the studies are for free, so why not take advantage of that?"
A survey published this week by the YTK unemployment fund revealed that 68 percent of respondents found their current job via so-called "hidden" methods — meaning the role was not publicly advertised but people found it through other means. YTK chief Auli Hänninen tells APN about some of the methods jobseekers use.
"By networking, by staying in touch with former colleagues, from the company itself if you know someone there. LinkedIn is a very good place to advertise yourself and tell about yourself, your skills and so employers can find you there. But you have to be active," Hänninen said.
As usual, we also round up the rest of the week's news from Finland and provide a tip on what to stream from Yle Areena.
Ask us anything!
This week's show was presented by Ronan Browne and the sound engineer was Juha Hjelm.
This year APN started a new series called 'Ask us anything', calling on listeners to contact us via WhatsApp at +358 44 421 0909 or at [email protected] and [email protected] with any questions they might have.
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