Over 40 years old are already facing problems in employment in Finland

According to the study the Trade Union Pro, which represents employed workers in Finland, administrative and clerical employees (in Finnish: toimihenkilö) who are over 40 years old are facing serious problems in their re-employment.

The study shows how the possibilities for unemployed administrative and clerical employees to get a new job decreases strongly after 40 years of age. The decrease is even stronger when the employee gets to the age of 50. The study reveals that from unemployed administrative and clerical employees who were over 55 years old, only 6 % believed they have a good possibility to get a new job. Six out of ten felt that their possibilities of getting a job were poor – on a scale of 4-10 they gave to their possibilities the lowest possible rate. Compared to the unemployed administrative and clerical employees under 45 years old of age, 25 % of under 45 years old rated their possibilities of getting a new job as good. It is not big percent either, but it is definitely more than with over 55 year old.

Finnish Trade Union Pro in 2011
This trend might raise a national-economy problem. In order to rehabilitate the national economy, the government of Finland has a plan to extend a person’s career by postponing the age of retirement. At the same time when the government supports longer career paths, the study shows that employers are not seeing the similar benefit of giving or keeping older employees. The diverse fields of the respondents also proves that this problem is not only affecting one field of the economy, but reflects the wider opinion of employees (in Finnish, palkansaaja) in Finland.

The research was based on a questionnaire conducted by the Finnish Trade Union Pro in 2011. The questionnaire was sent to trade union members, and the answers were gathered from 5421 members who were over 50 years old. Respondents were working in the fields of industry, services, ICT, communication and finance.