Massive generational shift expected to hit Helsinki municipal departments
Nearly 1,000 city employees a year reaching retirement age annually from 2010
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Finland’s largest employer, the City of Helsinki, faces an unprecedented generational change in the early part of the next decade. At that time, one age group after another will reach retirement age.
The most severely affected will be Helsinki Energy. A third of the energy utility’s 1,250 employees will retire by 2015.
One of those affected is 60-year-old engineer Osmo Enäkoski.
On Friday he was at his job at the main control room, making sure that more than half a million residents of Helsinki are supplied with electricity and district heat without interruption.
The large displays indicate that the Hanasaari and Vuosaari power plants are in operation. He constantly has to think what the most efficient means of generating electricity might be. It is in his power to determine the usage capacity of the various power plants.
Like thousands of others, Enäkoski became an employee of the City of Helsinki in the 1970s. Because his job involves work on three shifts, he has a slightly lower retirement age than many others.
His calculated date of retirement is June 16th, 2011, but he says that he is willing to work through the summer, if needed.
Enäkoski will be followed by many others in rapid succession. Matti Myllymäki, the head of the control room, says that 75 per cent of personnel - six out of eight - will go by 2015.
The retirement wave is also set to apply to cleaning and building maintenance services, as well as Palmia, which supplies the city with catering services. In the coming three years, 180 Palmia employees will turn 63 in the next three years.
The trend goes all the way to the top tiers of the city’s administration. Deputy Mayor Paula Kokkonen turns 64 in January, but she has not yet said when she actually wants to retire.
The retirement wave will also affect top posts in the city’s Public Works Department and the Real Estate Department, followed by the Education Department, the Youth Department, the Helsinki City Library, the Port of Helsinki, and the Rescue Department.
A shortage of nurses, doctors and teachers is feared in the coming years.
There could also be trouble finding enough social workers, day care personnel, and home assistance.
The city’s Personnel Department is considering recruiting nurses from abroad.
In anticipation of personnel shortages, the city is instituting an apprenticeship programme, hoping to attract students in the final stages of their studies to get a head start at a job with the city.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 23.11.2009 - TODAY |
 Massive generational shift expected to hit Helsinki municipal departments |
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