Ageing in Nordic Local Labour Markets

UEF // University of Eastern Finland

Petri Kahila, Research DirectorSpatia Centre for Regional [email protected]

OECD LEED Webinar SeriesWebinar 3 – Adapting to ageing and shrinking local areas19 January 2016

Ageing in Nordic Local Labour Markets


Main Demographic & Labour market Trends in the Nordic Countries• Concentration of people to urban areas has led to regional imbalances

• Immobility or decrease of the workforce• Gender imbalance• Strongly growing international migration• Ageing

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State in the Nordic Countries (1)• Natural change and net

migration reflect the total population change

• Total population change varies a lot in Nordic Countries

• Especially the background of municipality

• Negative demographic development is evident in rural areas

3


State in the Nordic Countries (2)• Share of people aged 55-

64• Average ratio was 12.5%

in 2013• In Nordic regions this age

group is larger than in Europe

• Result is that people reaching retirement will grow significantly

• At municipal level values range from 6% to 26% in Finland

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State in the Nordic Countries (3)• Norway is clearly

standing alone with low rates

• Sweden and Finalnd are descibed by high unemployment rates outside urban areas

• Some city regions are nowadays also facing high unemployment rates

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Mobilising the Labour Force

• Decline in the working age share of the population is reacted by mitigation efforts

• Pension reforms are primary instrument to mobilise labour force

• On the other hand, youth and now also immigrants are important target groups

• These instruments and policies cover normally mainly macro-level approaches

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Opportunities and Challenges in Regions• Cities form one extreme and rural/sparsely populated areas the other extreme

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Cities Gentrification

processes Segmented housing

and labour markets

Rural/sparsely populated areas

Poor employment possibilities

Depopulation and ageing Poor access to services• However, there are common challenges across the

territorial ‘urban’ and ‘rural’


Pursuing Regional/Local Approaches

• Macro-level policies prevail in both labour market and demography policy making

• There is a need to underline aspects of regional approaches to ageing

• Current governance approaches are not capable to tackle the right problems

• Geography of ageing is complex issue

8


ESF Project: Mentoring for Prosperous Workforce• Intention is to increase employees’ motivation to support the work community renewal

• How to apply employees’ know-how to increase the competitiveness

• Key issue is to recognise employees’ capabilities as well as deficiencies in the labour market

• Competitiveness can be advanced, if entire workforce can be utilised

9


Recent/prevailing policies

• Population change may lead to positive as well as negative economic development

• Improving the matching of labour demand and supply is central to national policies

• Finland is reforming health care and social welfare provision as well as labour market policy

• Reform might lead to more regionally targeted policies and incentives

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Questions &

CommentsPetri Kahila, Research Director

Economy & Finance

Ageing in Nordic Local Labour Markets