Termination of fixed-term jobs creates
more unemployment than redundancies

Helsinki (15.11.2009 - Juhani Artto) Redundancies make the headlines, but when fixed-term employment comes to an end it receives little public attention. However, in Finland it is the termination of fixed-term jobs, which results in far more unemployment than what can be attributed to redundancies.

According to the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, since the year 2000, termination of fixed-time employment has annually resulted in up to half a million periods of unemployment. In other words the cessation of fixed-time employment causes more unemployment than all other reasons put together. In 2008, there were almost ten times more fixed-term job terminations than redundancies caused by work place closures, economic difficulties in companies and changes in production.

In good economic times it was fairly easy to find new employment once a period of fixed-term employment had ended. Now, because of the recession, finding a new job is much more difficult. In August 2009 there were 58,000 fixed-time jobs less than in August 2008, according to Statistics Finland.

Source: PAM 16-2009