Unemployment in Finland rose to 10.5% in September — YLE News

In Finland, the unemployment rate stood at 10.5% in September, compared with 10.1% in August. The number of unemployed people reached 298,000, more than 10% higher than in the same period last year, YLE News reports.

The number of unemployed rose by 39,000

According to Statistics Finland's monthly survey, approximately 39,000 more people were unemployed in September than in the same month of 2025. Nearly 300,000 people aged 15 to 74 were looking for work.

At the same time, signs of Finland's gradual economic recovery have not yet affected the labor market. Economists expect that the positive impact of the economic recovery on employment may become apparent only over the course of a year.

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Deterioration among men and long-term unemployment

Statistics Finland recorded a particularly difficult situation among men: in September, the number of employed men was approximately 59,000 lower than a year earlier. The unemployment rate among men reached 10.9%, up 1.4 percentage points year on year.

According to the government KEHA Centre, at the end of September, around 143,000 people had been continuously registered as unemployed jobseekers for at least one year. This is 9% more than last year.

Companies postpone hiring

Petri Malinen, chief economist at the Federation of Finnish Enterprises, said that geopolitical uncertainty worsens companies' expectations and prompts them to postpone hiring workers. In his assessment, consumer caution is holding back the recovery in consumption, so demand for companies' products and services is growing slowly.