KEHA Centre published a national statistical review on the organisation of employment services

The written specialist assessments of employment services contain annual information and analyses on the organisation of employment services and their effectiveness. The KEHA Centre prepares a specialist assessment of each of the 45 employment areas once a year. The specialist assessments are processed in the regional cooperation and monitoring discussions organised by ELY Centres and the future Economic Development Centres. In 2025, cooperation and monitoring discussions were held between August and November.

Due to the exceptional situation and timing, the KEHA Centre was unable to prepare an annual specialist assessment to serve as a basis for the discussions this year. Instead, an expanded statistical review was drawn up for each discussion to illustrate the situation in the first months of the employment areas. To ensure equality between areas, the statistics discussed in the review were limited to January–June 2025, even if more up-to-date data was available in November.

The KEHA Centre publishes a national statistical review based on regional specialist assessments under the Employment and Statistics section at Job Market Finland and on the joint TUUTTI platform of the KEHA Centre and employment authorities.

If the information is requested, the KEHA Centre may also later update the statistics provided up to June, or submit more detailed reviews specific to each employment area. Information requests can be sent to tietopalvelu@keha-keskus.fi.

The currently published statistical review contains national and regional data, including

• the development in job seekers, unemployed persons, and open jobs,
• flow to unemployment,
• specialist-specific customer numbers and the amount of municipal funding,
• up-to-date employment plans and the implementation of the job seeker’s service process,
• customer satisfaction among job seekers, and
• use of statutory activation services.

Observations on the organisation of employment services (January–June/2025) 

• The employment areas have started out in very challenging labour market conditions.
• The turn of the year has caused a natural ‘shock reaction’ in many employment areas, some of which have recovered quickly and others more slowly.
• The costs of unemployment benefits co-funded by municipalities have increased significantly from the previous year.
• Flows to unemployment are at historically high levels in some areas.
• The use of statutory activation services decreased considerably throughout the year, but some municipalities have been able to replace them with non-statutory services.
• The proportion of up-to-date service plans decreased considerably from the beginning of the year, but in many areas, it began to recover in March and April.
• There are significant regional differences in the implementation of the statutory service model for job seekers (called the ‘Nordic employment service model’).
• Unemployment security processes have very short processing times, but the number of requests for evidence has decreased.
• Job seekers’ customer satisfaction with employment services has remained at a reasonably good level despite the major change.

Development of specialist assessments and statistical reviews

The contents of the national reviews will be developed further in 2026. Data, such as the cost-effectiveness of employment services and employment results, will be added to the reviews gradually as data becomes available (employment indicators based on the incomes register, among other things).

Moving forward, the written specialist assessments will be available on a dedicated website that can be accessed via Job Market Finland. The launch of the website will be announced later.

The reviews will be available under the Employment and Statistics section at Job Market Finland.

Employment services 

For more information, please contact (firstname.lastname@keha-keskus.fi):

• Santtu Sundvall, Head of Unit, KEHA Centre, Evaluation and Knowledge-based Leadership Unit  
• Petri Syvänen, Lead Researcher, KEHA Centre, Evaluation and Knowledge-based Leadership Unit