The Labour Market in Finland
Introduction
This report provides an account of the labour market in Finland. lt was produced for the European Commission, DG V (Directorate-General for Employment, lndustrial Relations and Social Affairs) by the Finnish Labour Institute for Economic Research, who carried out the research and drafted the report, which was edited by ECOTEC Research and Consulting Ltd. At the Labour Institute for Economic Research, the report was written by Dr. Tuire Santamäki-Vuori in co-operation with Ms. Silve Parviainen, M.Sc.
This study is one of a series of reports covering all the fifteen member states. Their aims are to take stock and analyse labour market developments in the EU in order ta inform employment policies in the light of the conclusions af the Essen Summit:
- the promotion af investments in vocational training
- the lowering of indirect wage costs
- the increase in the employment-intensiveness of growth
- the increase in the effectiveness of labour market policy
- the strengthening of measures for groups particularly affected by unemployment.
The report is structured in six sections, as follows:
- Section 1 provides an analysis of the labour market situation in Finland. lt examines the background to the labour market by considering: demographic trends; the structure of the workforce; trends in job creation, job loss and wages and salaries; and the causes of unemployment.
- Section 2 describes the main labour market institutions, including public employment services, collective wage bargaining and employee participation systems.
- Section 3 examines labour market legislation. This section includes a discussion of employment protection schemes, regulations on working time and minimum wages.
- Section 4 describes Finland’s labour market policies, in terms of both active and passive measures. lmplementation af active measures by public bodies is discussed and the range af existing active labour market policy measures are described. This section concludes with an evaluation af good practice in active measures.
- Section 5 presents an overview of other policies which have an impact on the labour market and which are not discussed in Section 4. The discussion includes, therefore, macro-economic policies, policies on education and training, taxation and social security and industrial policies.
The final Section places the discussion in the report in the context of the national debate in Finland. This Section examines current debate in the areas of macroeconomic policy and conditions, income taxation, deregulation of the labour market and work sharing. A short summary of the report is presented before Section 1.
- ISSN: 1236-7176
- ISBN: 952-5071-00-06
