This article is based on data from MeetFrank Job Market Insights. For additional and per-track reports, visit this page.
Finland restarted a lot of their public life on Monday, June 1 as the country lifted many restrictions put in place to slow the spread of coronavirus.
For example, bars, restaurants and museums reopened after two months. People are returning to these simple pleasures, with some measure of social distancing in place.
Businesses in Finland opening up – Image source
However, recent headlines have painted a grim outlook for the Finnish economy. Research shows that Finland’s GDP is set to shrink by 8% this year. Unemployed job seeker figures nearly doubled in April.
Now the question is, what is the job market recovery outlook like? We’re glad you asked. 🤓
Based on our data, the recovery looks like a rocky road for the Finnish job market. Here are some of the key takeaways on the recovery outlook in Finnish job market:
- Employers are not too eager to hire right now. 📉
- Job-seekers are increasingly active. 🏃♀️
- Expected and offered salaries are in a bit of a disagreement. 💸
Ready? Let’s dig into the details! 📊
Job market overview: May vs June
First of all, let’s take a look at a few fundamental indicators of the state of the job market.
We see that the number of active job openings is down by about 34% in Finland as compared to a month ago.
This decrease does not paint a very hopeful recovery outlook for the Finnish job market. 😳
However, the number of active job seekers has gone up by 10% in the past month. 📈
What do these numbers mean? It sure looks like a growing number of people are actively looking for employment, while employers are increasingly cautious about hiring at this time.
At the same time, the ease of finding a job in Finland has remained quite stable over the last few months, according to our market competitiveness indicator.
So, while the numbers of job openings and job seekers continue to fluctuate, they balance each other out month over month.
Salaries in TOP 6 specialties
When looking at the salaries in Finland, we see that on average, both the expected and offered gross salaries increased in May. 💰
Let’s now take a closer look at the offered salaries, by specialty.
As you can see, the average offered salaries have slightly increased in all specialties, except for Finance. So, even though the numbers of available job offers have gone down, the companies are willing to pay more for the roles that are available. 😉
Now, what about expected salaries?
In general, the salaries that job-seekers expect have increased even more than the offered salaries in the past month. This is a good indicator of job-seeker confidence. 🏆
However, we see a few specialties where the expectations and offers are out of sync. For example, in May job-seekers in software engineering expected lower salaries than what was actually offered. The difference was a stunning 700EUR. 😯
Job-seekers in sales & business development and (tech) project management are on the opposite end of the spectrum. The salary expectations of sales & business development job-seekers are on average about 1300EUR higher than the offered salaries. For (tech) project management, the expectations are about 800EUR higher.
These salary numbers show a disconnect between what the employers and job-seekers think of the state of the job market. Let’s see if either the job-seekers or employers adjust their outlook in the summer months. ⚖️
Competition in TOP 6 specialties
In the first section of this article, we had a quick look at the job market competitiveness. Now, let’s dig into this topic by specialty and see what has changed in the past month. 👀
In general, we see that different fields have very different market competitiveness levels in Finland.
Job-seekers in Finance should find it very easy to find employment, while those in marketing are facing very high competition.
Those looking for a job in IT & sysadmin and software engineering should find it quite easy to get employed. Sales & business development and (tech) project management are leaning towards a challenging job market. 🙇
If we compare the indicators for April and May, we see that the ease of finding a job has remained on the same level for most specialties. The biggest change has happened in the field of IT & sysadmin, where finding a job became more difficult in May.
TOP 10 Companies with the most applications in May 2020
Now, let’s see which companies managed to attract the most applications in May 2020. 🔍
In first place is Supermetrics, a tool that helps marketers get data. They’re doing something right, as the MeetFrank job seekers really want to work with them. 🚀
While Supermetrics was also featured in our previous top chart of desirable companies to work with, then a newcomer is in second place: Kide Science. They offer online play-based STEAM programs that plant the seeds of scientific thinking in the minds of 3-8 year old children. Yay for science! 🧬
In third place is Appgyver, who was leading the list for the year so far a month ago. They are doing something right, as they continue to attract plenty of talent! 👏
The rest of the 10 companies that managed to attract a significant number of applicants include a good mix of IT and software companies, with a marketing & advertising agency thrown into the mix.
Welcome to the MeetFrank family!
Recently, we welcomed Spark Sustainability, 4Straction and Boost Turku to the Finnish MeetFrank family. 🤗 To discover their latest job offers, download the MeetFrank app and apply today:
- Spark Sustainability is looking for a Lead Developer
- Spark Sustainability is looking for a Junior Developer
- 4Straction is looking for an Application specialist for sales and customer service
- Boost Turku is looking for an Executive Director