Finland - Jyvaskyla Region - Final Self-Evaluation Report.pdf

Jyväskylä0,60,91,11,0Central Finland-1,4-0,7-0,6-0,0Äänekoski-3,4-1,8-1,3-0,7Keuruu-1,8-2,2-2,1-1,1Viitasaari-2,0-2,4-2,1-1,5Kaakkoinen Keski-Suomi-2,1-2,5-2,4-1,3Saarijärvi-3,7-2,4-2,1-1,4Jämsä-6,2-3,0-1,8-0,9-7,0 -6,0 -5,0 -4,0 -3,0 -2,0 -1,0 0, 0 1,0 2,0Population Employment GDP per capita GEPFigure 2.6 Average deviations of annual changes between Central Finland (including sub-regional unitsseparately) and the whole country in value added, employed and population in 1996-2003,% (Source:Statistics Finland)The employment in the region of Jyväskylä decreased sharply in the early 1990s due to the deep economicrecession that hit the region of Jyväskylä harder than many other regions in Finland (Figure 2.7). Severalfirms went bankrupt or downsized their activities and the simultaneous cuts in the public economy made theeconomic performance still worse. In 1994, employment started to increase again, by 2-3% in recent years.The employment rate has not reached the level of the late 1980s, instead, it seems to be settled at the level of61%, which is below the national rate (67%). The difference between regional and national employmentrates has slightly increased after the recession.The unemployment rate is rather high in the region of Jyväskylä. During the recession, the unemploymentrate in the region peaked at as high as nearly 25%. In the recovery period, it has markedly decreased but it isstill highest (14%) among the largest growth regions and exceeds the national unemployment rate (Figure2.7).20