Joining an unemployment fund is a form of insurance against unemployment. Highly educated people usually need to go through long recruitment processes, and, especially in the early stages of their careers, their employment relationships can be fixed-term. In addition, if the employment suddenly ends, it is rarely because of the employee’s choice. Join the unemployment fund in good time to safeguard your finances and gain peace of mind so you can concentrate on your job search when you graduate.
It is worth joining the unemployment fund at the earliest possible stage. In the event of unemployment or layoff, you can receive an earnings-related daily allowance based on your wage or salary, provided that you have been a member of the unemployment fund for at least 12 months, and you meet the minimum work requirement (finn. työssäoloehto, “employment condition”) of 12 months.
Every month in which you earn at least €930 counts as a full month towards the minimum work requirement. If you earn €465–€929 in a month, it contributes half a month towards the minimum work requirement. You can build up the minimum work requirement by working for different employers and in different periods. In other words, you could meet the requirement while studying if you have a full-time summer job and part-time work, whether the work is related to your field or not. The law governing the work requirement changed on 2 September 2024, so you may also be subject to the old work requirement. If anything is unclear, you can find information on the KOKO unemployment fund website.
An earnings-related daily allowance based on your wage or salary is generally higher than the unemployment benefit you can receive from Kela. For example, if you earn €3,000 per month, your earnings-related daily allowance will be approximately €1,700 per month, while the basic daily allowance or labour market subsidy you can receive from Kela is only about €800 per month.
The unemployment fund’s membership fee for 2026 is €69. You can join the fund either by adding the service in OmaTEK member portal or by sending a message to the TEK member service via OmaTEK’s communication channel.
Please note that you must be in paid employment when you join the unemployment fund. You cannot have gaps in your membership of the unemployment fund, so it is worth remaining a member throughout your studies once you have joined.