Finland’s Unemployment Rate Rose for Second Month in November

By Kati Pohjanpalo

Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Finland’s unemployment rate climbed for a second consecutive month in November as companies cut their payrolls to adjust to slumping exports and a contracting manufacturing industry.

The jobless rate increased to 8.5 percent from 8.2 percent a month earlier, Helsinki-based Statistics Finland said on its Web site today. The median estimate of five economists in a Bloomberg survey was for a rate of 8.7 percent.

Unemployment is rising in the northernmost euro member as companies including the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones Nokia Oyj cut jobs in an effort to remain profitable. Finland’s nine-month recession ended in the third quarter, though business confidence and industrial output have continued to decline into the last three months of the year.

Unemployment will peak at 10.5 percent next year and the number of people with jobs will drop by 75,000, the Finance Ministry said on Dec. 18. The jobless rate was 6.4 percent in 2008. There is a growing risk that temporary lay-offs may become permanent in 2010, the ministry said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kati Pohjanpalo in Helsinki at kpohjanpalo@bloomberg.net