COVID-19 layoffs set to ease
The number of laid off university-educated employees in the tech sector is already approaching pre-COVID levels.
According to employment data collected by TEK, at the end of July the number of unemployed (in Finnish, työtön) university-educated persons in the tech sector was 2 484, which comes to 3.5 % of the equivalent labour force. A further 291 persons were fully laid off (in Finnish, lomautettu). In July 2020 the number of unemployed persons was 2 622 while 1 750 persons were laid off.
– The development seems positive when it comes to layoffs. Seasonal variation always grows unemployment rates in the summer, so I would not interpret the slight variation in unemployment to mean that being laid off has turned into unemployment. Of course, I am sure that this has also happened, but even in these cases the unemployment was perhaps short-lived, says TEK's analyst Arttu Piri.
The new statistics also bring joy to TEK’s Labour Market Director and YTN’s Chair Teemu Hankamäki.
– Industrial prospects are quite good at the moment; companies are primarily achieving good results and the number of orders is high. Looking back, the employment situation of our profession mostly suffered from COVID in the form of layoffs.