Whether you have or haven’t ever visited Finland, chances are, there’s been, at least at some stage, a part of Finland that’s stayed with you. Implicit in the heart of this wondrous European nation is a brand that perhaps we’ve all carried and operated. Nokia is to Finland what Hollywood is to America.
It is both a uniquely impressive and intricate relationship. But over the years as the smartphone culture has found instead of concentration in a few geographies, increased global widespread, things began taking a U-turn for Finland; ever dependable on Nokia’s contribution to its economy.
In fact economists and experts- whether those spread in the cavernous expanse of a Davos economic forum or everyday number crunchers in some of world’s leading publications have offered a grim overview of Finland’s economy.
That Finland’s economy- industrialised and heavily centred on electronics, engineered metal products, freshwater sources and agricultural outputs- it was reported, had crawled several yards backwards given a poor GDP turnout and shrinking export situation.
Things took a bad turn during April, 2017, just a few months ago. With rising unemployment, it seemed, these were indeed heated times for a country otherwise so ecstatically chilled and self-content. But as with every economy that has seen it all- slow outputs, downturns, exacerbated by dwindling fortunes for most of EU nations- Finland is rising back.
During the year’s third quarter, the Finnish economy began crawling back. With marked improvements in both unemployment and inflation, purists are no longer calling it, the ‘Sick Man of Europe’, perhaps a limerick concocted to attribute a waning economy.
Here’s some bright spark, finally. At around this time last year, unemployment levels in Finland were at a staggering 8.1% which have now finally fallen to 7.3%. Reason? An increasing number of people are engaged in the growing automobile and electronics sector of the Nordic country.
It is safe to suggest, according to Statistics Finland, that the number of unemployed persons today are under 200,000. Moreover, with youth unemployment finding a downward shift, receding from 12.3 percent figure of last year, the sun is shining in Finland, if not literally.
Another interesting facet with regards to Finland takes the commoner across to the tech sector; basically in a growing ambit across Europe. It appears that on an average, every 3 in 10 workers in Finland are employed in the tech sector. There’s rising optimism with a long standing dispute regarding wages between the Technology Industries of Finland and the Finnish Industrial Union having settled.
What else could have Prime Minister Juha Sipila asked for, one wonders? Finland’s tech sector already accounts for half of Finnish exports.