Another grim figure from Finland: People with higher education are becoming unemployed at a record pace

Highly educated there were about 7,900 more unemployed in September than a year earlier, says Akava, the labor market center organization for those with higher education.

The unemployment curve does not seem to turn downward, at least not in the next few months.

“It’s now starting to look like the previous peak of unemployment for those with higher education, which was in 2016, may very well be reached in the next few months,” says Akava’s chief economist Pasi Sorjonen for STT.

The unemployment level of 2016 has already been exceeded for those who have completed a lower university degree.

Unemployment among those with higher education already exceeded the worst readings of the Corona era in July.

In the near future, according to Sorjonen, more university-educated unemployed people may be caused, among other things, by the ongoing efficiency measures in the public sector.

Awkward according to that, the unemployment of those with higher education usually starts to decrease only after the unemployment of others has started to decrease. However, unemployment among non-university graduates continues to increase.

“There are no signs that the increase is stopping or turning to a decrease, which would indicate that the increase in unemployment among those with higher education will continue for quite some time,” says Sorjonen.

According to Sorjonen, unemployment among the highly educated may have to wait well into next year.

According to Sorjonen, the nature of the jobs explains why the unemployment situation of non-higher-educated people usually improves earlier.

“For some of those with a higher education, the tasks are forward-looking, leading, planning and creating new things. For non-university graduates, the nature of the tasks can be more of a basic job, which is enough as long as there is enough work at all,” says Sorjonen.

The highly educated according to Sorjonen, the work situation is particularly bad in technical and economic fields, as a single professional group, for example, among architects. In the past, an increase in unemployment has been observed, for example, in the field of information and communication technology.

The problems in the construction industry also weigh on the employment of those with higher education in the field.

Statistics Finland reported on Tuesday that the number of employed people in Finland fell clearly in September, while the number of unemployed people increased. Economists interviewed by STT estimate that no improvement is expected in the general employment situation during the rest of the year.