Sixth report by the Helsinki GSE Situation Room: Compared to last year, over 100,000 people more have applied for unemployment benefit from Kela

The Helsinki Graduate School of Economics (Helsinki GSE) has established a situation room to support ministries and other public authorities in economic policy-making during the coronavirus crisis.

The Situation Room will publish its sixth report on Thursday 28 May 2020 at 8 am, and a webinar on the topic will also start at this same time in the Zoom app (link below). This sixth report deals with and illustrates the following:

• The number of people applying for unemployment benefit from Kela has continued rising. At the moment, there are over 100,000 more applications than last year.
• Compared to last year, people applying for employment benefit are on average wealthier, more highly educated and more of them have families.
• In Uusimaa, more than one fifth of those applying for Kela's unemployment benefit during the coronavirus epidemic were in the top thirty percentile for income in 2018.
• More than 12 per cent of families with children have faced lay-offs during the crisis. The corresponding figure for those applying for unemployment benefit from Kela is less than 9 per cent.
• Families with children where two people who have been laid off or who have applied for unemployment benefit from Kela are fairly rare.
   

Link to the webinar on Thursday 28 May at 8 am: https://aalto.zoom.us/j/64914858461

The weekly webinars will be held in Finnish; they are open to everyone and free of charge.

More information on the Situation Room and its latest public reports can be found on the Helsinki GSE website https://www.helsinkigse.fi/
 

Additional information:
Otto Toivanen
Aalto University, Professor
Helsinki GSE, Academic Director
+358 50 353 7651
otto.toivanen@aalto.fi

Helsinki Graduate School of Economics is a joint teaching and research unit in economics of Aalto University, University of Helsinki and Hanken School of Economics.