Finnish Jobless Rate Drops In January

Finland's unemployment rate decreased from last year in January, data released by Statistics Finland showed Tuesday.

The unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent in January from 8.2 percent a year earlier. The unemployment rate among young people, aged between 15 and 24, increased by 13 percentage points from last year to 20.4 percent in January.

The number of jobless persons decreased to 203,000 in January from 215,000 in the same month last year.

The employment rate, meanwhile, edged up to 66.9 percent during the month from 66.8 percent last year. The number of employed persons remained almost unchanged at 2.41 million in January. The activity rate in the Finnish labor force was 64.2 percent, down from 64.8 percent recorded in January 2011.