Information package: unemployment benefits
Kela is responsible for the securing of subsistence for unemployed persons through basic unemployment allowance and labour market subsidy. The following is a brief overview of the current state of Kela’s unemployment benefits and of recent developments. At the end, you will find links to more material on this topic from Kela, including statistics and studies on unemployment benefits.
The number of recipients of Kela unemployment benefits has decreased in recent years
In 2023, Kela paid unemployment benefits to about 295,000 persons, which was seven percent less than the year before. In 2022, there were about 315,000 benefit recipients, down from about 356,000 in 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly increased the need for unemployment benefits in spring 2020. During 2020, Kela paid unemployment benefits to a total of 412,000 persons, 44,000 of whom received labour market subsidies for self-employed persons, available under a temporary provision. Including the labour market subsidy for self-employed persons, the number of recipients of unemployment benefits from Kela increased by 24 per cent from 2019 to 2020.
Labour market subsidies for the self-employed were received by about 32,000 persons in 2021 and by 15,000 persons in 2022. The temporary provision under which self-employed persons could qualify for labour market subsidies expired in February 2022.
At the end of 2023, Kela paid unemployment benefits to about 197,000 persons. This is slightly more than at the end of the previous year (191,000).
Kela’s annual expenditure on unemployment benefits comes to about EUR 2 billion
In 2023, Kela paid EUR 1,932 million in unemployment benefits. This is slightly less than in the year before, when the benefit expenditure totalled EUR 1,960 (at 2023 prices, i.e., adjusted for inflation).
The number of unemployed persons and the expenditure on unemployment benefits increased in the early 2010s. The expenditure on earnings-related unemployment benefits started decreasing in 2016, but the expenditure on basic unemployment benefits not until a year later, in 2017. The expenditure on earnings-related unemployment benefits was affected by positive developments in the economy and in employment rates, which brought down unemployment rates. The effect could be seen in basic unemployment benefits with a delay.
In 2018, a significant change occurred in the expenditure on unemployment benefits: For the first time, Kela paid more in basic unemployment benefits than the unemployment funds paid in earnings-related unemployment benefits. In that year, the expenditure on basic unemployment benefits was about 2% higher than the expenditure on earnings-related unemployment benefits. In 2010 more than twice the amount was paid out in earnings-related unemployment benefits than in basic unemployment benefits.
Expenditure on unemployment benefits decreased in 2018 and 2019, until unemployment rates starting rising rapidly due to COVID-19 in spring 2020. In 2020 and 2021, the expenditure on earnings-related unemployment benefits was again higher than the expenditure on basic unemployment benefits. However, the labour market recovered quickly from the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022–2023, the expenditure on basic unemployment benefits again exceeded that on earnings-related benefits.
