Finland: 41% of young people without upper secondary work, against 69% in 2000
These are people aged 25–34. With upper secondary (school or vocational) 74% work, almost as in 2000 (76%); with tertiary 88% (was 84%). Early leaving has not shrunk: 9.9% of 18–24-year-olds, against 9.0% in 2000.
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Finland's schools are among the world's best known, but the cost of not finishing them is rising: fewer and fewer young people without upper secondary find work, although no more leave early than 25 years ago. The fall is slow, year after year, with no jump in a crisis or the pandemic.
Lines: share employed among people aged 25–34 with and without upper secondary education, %.
- Finland: employed, 25–34, below upper secondary %
2000: 69.3; 2025: 40.5
OECD: Education at a Glance; Eurostat: EU Labour Force Survey and early leavers · CC BY 4.0
- Finland: employed, 25–34, upper secondary %
2000: 75.6; 2025: 74.3
OECD: Education at a Glance; Eurostat: EU Labour Force Survey and early leavers · CC BY 4.0
- Finland: employed, 25–34, tertiary %
2000: 83.8; 2025: 87.9
OECD: Education at a Glance; Eurostat: EU Labour Force Survey and early leavers · CC BY 4.0
- Finland: early leavers, 18–24 %
2000: 9.0; 2025: 9.9
OECD: Education at a Glance; Eurostat: EU Labour Force Survey and early leavers · CC BY 4.0
OECD Education at a Glance: employment at ages 25–34 by education, both sexes; the 2025 gap (33.8 pp) exceeds 1.96 times its error (1.7). Early leavers: Eurostat, edat_lfse_14.
The data name no causes. Possible explanations: the group's make-up changes (more newcomers whose education is unrecognised or unfinished); some 25–34-year-olds are back in education and not working. In Ireland and Greece employment of this group fell too, but early leaving shrank several times there, so the group itself shrank. The direction is not universal: Germany barely changed, Hungary rose.
A question for this picture
And with a degree? In the US young graduates have been unemployed more often than workers overall for more than five years.