FACTFILE: Nearly 90,000 availed themselves of job rotation benefit
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Almost 90,000 people have taken advantage of the job rotation scheme that was introduced in Finland in 1996. The popularity has increased since 2000, and last year nearly 13,300 wage earners went on job rotation leave.
The leave is a period lasting between three months and a year, during which time the person on leave is entitled to 70-80% of the regular unemployment benefit. The employer, meanwhile, replaces the person on leave with someone who has been unemployed.
The goal of the scheme was to provide work for the long-term unemployed. However, in practice, less than two percent of the substitutes have been without work for more than a year. Last year more than half of those provided work under the job substitution system had been without work for less than two weeks before the job rotation work began.
About 70% of those who avail themselves of job rotation are women. The scheme is most frequently used in the municipal sector, and after that come private companies. Nearly 75% of those taking leave under the job rotation scheme are over the age of 40, while 70% of substitutes are under the age of 40.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 1.12.2004
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Year off in Åland changed Annamaija Varjonen's life
Employers worried about "voluntary unemployment" trend
Helsingin Sanomat
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