Finland has filled only 29 of the 500 government jobs for young people announced by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government in April. Despite the slow start, the Ministry of Finance says it still expects the target to be reached, as most recruitment is expected to take place during the autumn.
The programme announced by the Finnish government in April is aimed at people aged 18 to 25 applying for their first job or traineeship in central government. The government allocated €4 million in the 2026 supplementary budget to finance 500 fixed-term positions lasting up to three months.
The measure was introduced as part of a broader effort to support youth employment at a time when entering the Finnish labour market has become particularly difficult for younger workers.
Only 29 of Finland’s 500 youth jobs have been filled
By the end of August, only 29 young people had been recruited across 16 government agencies, according to figures from the Ministry of Finance reported by Yle.
Janne Öberg, Senior Financial Officer at the Ministry of Finance, said the ministry expects recruitment to accelerate significantly during September.
“During September, the number will increase considerably, so you can’t draw any conclusions from these figures yet. We believe that most of these internship positions will be filled during early autumn.”
The ministry remains confident that all 500 positions will eventually be filled.
Interest from government agencies does not appear to be the main obstacle. Öberg told Yle that agencies had proposed more than 700 positions under the programme. The Ministry of Finance then distributed the available funding among agencies so that the total number was limited to 500.
Why recruitment has been slow
According to the government agencies contacted by Yle, one problem was timing. The additional funding became available too late for many agencies to include the positions in their normal summer recruitment.
Hiring procedures can take time, while some government positions also require security clearances. Agencies therefore said it was difficult to bring young workers into their organisations during the summer holiday period.
The Finnish Tax Administration, for example, said it had to wait for senior staff to return from their summer holidays before taking on young recruits. The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) planned to open applications in August.
Öberg also said autumn is generally considered a more suitable period for internships by many agencies.
“We believe that many prefer to take interns for the autumn season.”
Although the programme was presented as a measure for 2026, agencies are allowed to continue recruiting and hiring young people during the first six months of 2027. If an agency does not use all of the positions assigned to it, the remaining places can be redistributed to other agencies.
Finland’s youth unemployment remains high
The slow implementation comes as youth unemployment remains one of the most difficult parts of Finland’s labour market.
According to the latest Labour Force Survey from Statistics Finland, published on 22 September, the unemployment rate among people aged 15 to 24 was 16.9% in August 2026, compared with 16.6% a year earlier. The seasonally adjusted trend rate for youth unemployment stood at 22.7%.
The figures require some context. Statistics Finland measures the unemployment rate as the share of unemployed people in the labour force, rather than among the entire age group. In August, unemployed people represented 8.2% of Finland’s total population aged 15 to 24.
The wider labour market showed some improvement. Finland had 262,000 unemployed people aged 15 to 74 in August, 5,000 fewer than a year earlier, while the trend unemployment rate stood at 10.1%.
Earlier this year, Yle reported that younger workers had been particularly exposed to Finland’s weak labour market, with limited work experience making it harder to compete for jobs during an economic slowdown.
The 500 temporary government positions are a relatively small measure compared with the scale of youth unemployment, but they were designed to provide young people with an initial period of work experience. The next months will show whether the government can turn the positions announced in April into actual placements after the slow start during the summer.
