Unemployment rose sharply among highly-educated people in Finland last year, according to figures released by the central statistics office on Tuesday.
Joblessness among those with tertiary-level degrees climbed by some 30 percent between 2012 and 2013, says Statistics Finland. While more people in Finland overall were looking for work, this group expanded the most quickly.
The largest spikes in joblessness among the well-educated were in the natural sciences and technology sectors – reflecting massive job cuts by Nokia and other firms in the IT branch. The tech sector has been shedding jobs since 2009.
Lowest unemployment in health and welfare
In general, the highest levels of unemployment among university graduates were in the arts and humanities, with 11 percent looking for work. The picture was brightest in the health and welfare sector, where just 2.8 percent were jobless.
Still, those with university-level degrees experience the highest employment rates – over 80 percent, compared to just 45 percent of individuals with basic educations.
A year ago, there were 328,000 unemployed people of working age, an increase of nearly 17 percent from a year earlier.
By this past October the unemployment rate had edged up to 8.3 percent from 7.4 percent in October 2013.
