Finnish unemployment drops to 7.7 % in July

Finland's unemployment rate dropped to 7.7 per cent in July from 9.1 per cent in June due to seasonal variations, the Finnish statistics agency said yesterday.

Adjusted for seasonal variations, the jobless rate inched up to 8.9 per cent in July from 8.8 per cent in June, it said.

Some 211,000 people were out of work in Finland in July, 67,000 more than a year earlier. Around 2.73 million Finns held down jobs, down 1.2 per cent from July 2008.

Meanwhile, the jobless rate among people aged 15 to 24 was 15 per cent in gross figures, but 21.8 per cent when corrected for seasonal variations.

Finland's unemployment rate hit a peak of 10.9 per cent in May, the month each year when students descend on the labour market in search of a summer job.

The Finnish economy, which is heavily dependent on exports, has been hard hit by the global economic crisis since the third quarter of 2008, when demand for its mobile phones, industrial machinery and forestry products plunged, leading to thousands of lay-offs.