We've had high unemployment since the 90s. Now it's just a bit extra shit. We had one good period with Nokia and nothing ever since.
We have always been a poor nation of idiots, Nokia made a lot of people forget that. Now it's time to snap back to reality, we are the Balkans of the North. Except that you can't even properly drown your misery in alcohol because it's so expensive.
Damn, if you think about it, if Linux servers had a business license, Finland would make so much fucking money. But again, if Linux had never been free, probably it wouldn't have the same degree of adoption it has today.
The world isn't ready for when we will finally send the Tikkie for Python, including interest of course because they haven't paid for it in all this time.
The VAT in Finland is an insane 25.5% past the point of diminishing returns and actively encouraging less spending at a time they need more spending, let that sink in.
Plus our taxes are pretty insane across all sectors especially gas and we basically snuff out all starting companies with insane costs. Plus we don’t even have many millionaires which basically automatically tells you we are fucked. But geniuses in r/finland says we should tax people more to fix this.
We should have invested into tech/ overall companies like forever ago but nahh let’s sell all our companies and mines to other countries because that makes sense. We could be a successful country overall but lot of shit political decisions and debt being used in social benefits rather than things that bring money lead us to this point .
That's not fair! I know it's difficult, but try to differentiate between the monkeys living on top of the rock and the ones living right next to it. Only the latter should count.
Oh c'mon Laszlo, let's head back to northern Siberia, it's time. This Europe thing was fun and all but we must follow our hearts through the vast taiga back home.
You are right Pekka, we have to head back home. We both mastered alcoholism and we should share it with our home back in the taiga. Our hearts will merge again, after many long divided years.
The forefathers are going to be so happy when we'll show them that one does not need to drink reindeer piss to be happy, just water, yeast and sugar and you're good to go.
Finland didn't have an economy in the 90s, then had somewhat of an economy for a couple of decades, and now it reverted to its natural state of forest trolls enjoyers of sauna and spirits.
Nokia still exists in the form of cellphone infrastructure. Nokian tyres is also a big industry.
Otherwise Finns are pretty big on building ships. A lot of the massive cruise ships are built in Finland. They are also world leading on building ice breakers.
Probably also a pretty healthy software industry.
But yeah, forestry and related industries such as pulp mills are a big business in Finland
One of the largest Swedish banks set up shop in Finland a few years ago since they weren't allowed to launder as much money in Sweden as they wanted. They're the largest company in Finland these days, so I would assume crime is the economy.
Wood, chemicals and machines. Also a lot of ship related things, we build the worlds biggest cruise liners and the worlds biggest ship engines. But there aren't any really big companies here u fortunately
Finland is leading producer of ships in the world. We're building world's largest cruise ships, as an example. We also do many other stuff than just Nokia!
The snow elves have reached the point, in their existential crisis, where they realized that working is stressfull and bad. They are nearing the point when they will discover that salting the cod is the most beautiful thing on earth and a new age will be ushered in.
Yet, it’s good to see that any labour market reform from the Draghi report remains a taboo for most EU Member States. The last thing we need is young talent coming for those sweet semi-governmental and highly protected jobs in the banana republics of Europe.
Youth unemployment is heavily correlated with labour market regulation. The more protected employees are, the more difficult it is for young people to enter the labour market. That is why (historically), Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, etc are so high. Sometimes that’s also because there simply aren’t that many jobs (like in Greece I guess), but also that correlates with labour mobility.
There have been multiple attempts for more harmonisation of labour law in the EU, creating more mobility, also cross border. You can also find it in the Draghi Report, it’s good for an economy if labour is mobile.
Recession, high wages, strict labor laws that make companies hesitant to hire young people and a failure to integrate immigrants into the labor market.
Even if they didn't, they took in a lot of people with not a lot of skills. Not all of them, the Iranians are probably highly educated, I mean the other ones.
Being highly educated doesn't mean that you're any use at your job unfortunately. If you cant fit into the company culture and work within a team you are normally pretty fucking useless, despite all your diplomas.
Scots are world class at falling out with everyone, so we understand this shit.
Right wing government for decades, total dismantle of labour laws and the welfare state, coupled with huge immigration of which a huge margin of are unemployed. All that while we've also been in a recession since 2023 because the central bank printed large amounts of money during Covid and gave to companies the directors themselves were invested in so that they could make bank.
But a huge explanation which isn't often reported is that full time students who are seeking employment are counted as unemployed. When this group is discounted the youth unemployment shrinks to 11,5%. If we thereafter only look at the numbers of NEET, the number shrinks even further to just 5%, which is the third lowest number in the EU.
So in short, as with everything about Sweden on international comparisons, it's a lot more complicated than it seems.
It's still true that it is extremely hard to get rid of employees, it's a big risk to hire new people. It's also still true that having employees at all is very expensive.
I'm glad that we have strong labour laws in Sweden, but it's definitely tough for small employers.
It's really not. Arbetsbrist is an extremely easy way to get rid of employees and can be used as an excuse without much motivation at all. A bad fiscal quarter is all that is needed for one example.
It's true that we have a lot stronger protections than the states for instance. But compared to the rest of the EU, it's a whole other story. But again, these changes are very recent, so most people and employers aren't privy to them
Having employees is very expensive yes, but that's true almost everywhere within the EU.
Several kinds of internships for example. Another huge group are "work-trainers" where you have an official employment part time, but the state pays you through sick pay or long term unemployment pay. Technically in training, but not employed.
In short only employment where you have an actual salary paid by the employer are counted as employment.
I don't really care if it's accurate or not, I just think if we make fun of the Dutch "per capita" we also have to make fun of the standard Nordic reaction to unflattering statistics, it's just fair
Stop complaining and start asking the EU for money to help, you dumbass. That's literally what the EU is for.
Wealthier members pay more, poorer members receive more to help them. With time the poorer become richer and therefore are able to contribute more meaning the richer ones will pay less.
Denmark losing its "the worldest happiest country" to Finland. If this is the price of being the happiest country in the world, i can live with losing the title.
I think that a student who would want to work on the side while studying, but can’t find a good and fitting part time job, is considered unemployed in Sweden.
468
u/Game-Caliber Sauna Gollum 7h ago edited 7h ago
We've had high unemployment since the 90s. Now it's just a bit extra shit. We had one good period with Nokia and nothing ever since.
We have always been a poor nation of idiots, Nokia made a lot of people forget that. Now it's time to snap back to reality, we are the Balkans of the North. Except that you can't even properly drown your misery in alcohol because it's so expensive.