Nearly 60,000 jobs available; many not suitable for today’s unemployed
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Top Finance Ministry official Raimo Sailas says that the Finnish labour market is burdened by a simultaneous high level of unemployment and a shortage of labour in certain sectors.
"The problem has become more acute in recent months", Sailas says.
The matter came up at a seminar arranged by the Finnish Confederation of Salaried Employees (STTK). One of the speakers, Leif Fagernäs, head of the Confederation of Finnish Industry, said that there are about 58,000 jobs available.
Fagernäs wanted to show that recent news items of mass redundancies imposed by large companies do not reveal the whole truth of the situation on the labour market.
"New recruitments come in small batches, and do not cross the news threshold even in local newspapers", Fagernäs said.
Although the figure of 58,000 put forward by Fagernäs differs somewhat from the recent statistics put out by the Ministry of Labour, the ministry’s figures also tell of an increase in available jobs. In June the Ministry’s figures indicated a new record: 56,000 jobs available.
"The number will soon be the same as it was at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, before the recession", Sailas points out.
He also says that the acute situation could also be a topic of discussion at the government’s budget talks at the end of the month.
Sailas feels that the reason why available jobs and job-seekers do not link up needs to be examined carefully. He says that one possible reason might be that local labour officials are too lax in applying rules on accepting offered jobs.
Markku Wallin, Chief of Staff at the Ministry of Labour, does not accept the notion of inefficiency at labour exchanges.
"There is no problem. What is happening is that more jobs are becoming available in an economy that is in good shape."
"Another possible reason is that employers are adhering to more stringent criteria when hiring, and are not satisfied with the people sent to them."
Particularly noteworthy in the statistics of the Labour Ministry is the situation in the construction industry: 17,000 unemployed workers, and more than 5,000 jobs available.
Wallin at the Ministry of Labour sees a historical background to the situation.
"When unemployment shot up, the people in the construction sector who lost their jobs were the ones who did not have a clear profession. These 17,000 are people who are not suitable for the construction sector in this situation, at least at this point."
Wallin sees them as the "hard core" of the unemployed - long-term jobless, who are very difficult to employ.
Wallin also said that construction companies are giving preference to foreign labour at the expense of Finns.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 17.8.2005 - TODAY |
 Nearly 60,000 jobs available; many not suitable for today’s unemployed
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