Finland's unemployment continued to rise last month.
The unemployment rate trend in December stood at 10.7 percent, up slightly from November's 10.6 percent, according to Statistics Finland.
In hard numbers, there were roughly 51,000 more unemployed people in Finland in December than the same month in 2024.
It said the unemployment rate trend among people between the ages of 15 and 74 was 10.7 percent.
About 2.54 million people in Finland were employed in December, while there were around 277,000 unemployed people.
According to the agency, unemployment increased among both men and women. Last month saw 29,000 more unemployed men and 22,000 more unemployed women compared to December 2024.
The new figures mean that Finland's unemployment in December was at its highest level since 2009.
Pointing out positive aspects of last month's job figures, the agency's chief actuary Tatu Leskinen said "the number of employed people has remained close to levels seen a year ago".
"This is also reflected in the data for the last quarter," Leskinen said in the release.
However, unemployment increased across all age groups. There were around 43,000 unemployed people under the age of 25 who were job hunting in December — or about 6,000 more, year-on-year. At the same time, there were around 88,300 job-seeking unemployed people over the age of 55 — or about 6,400 more.
Long-term unemployment was also up by 28,000, with 138,000 people who had been unemployed for at least a year.
The agency explained how it measures employment figures.
It pointed out that month-to-month employment and unemployment figures can vary quite a bit, and that monthly fluctuations reflect seasonal employment changes, rather than job development trends.
"For that reason, the latest statistical data are compared to the corresponding period of the [previous] year," it said in the release.
