Tönnes Lönnroos, Lisa

Smartphone car service Uber, a successful company example of the sharing economy, has spread to many EU Member States in recent years. However, many employers and unions are concerned about its challenge to fair competition for other businesses in the sector and about the erosion of working conditions for drivers. It remains to be seen whether there is some ground for EU- level regulation in this field.

Although Finland has the third-highest proportion of female board members in Europe, women executives are still overwhelmingly outnumbered. A new study suggests that Finnish companies are not actively promoting gender equality; the government has told the private sector that it must make sure at least 40% of its board members are women.

More than one-third of Finnish employees aged 50–64 estimate that they will continue working past the earliest retirement age of 63 years, according to a 2013 survey. However, an equally large proportion of the survey’s respondents feared that their working life would end early due to disability or unemployment.

Finland’s new right-wing coalition government has challenged the country’s tradition of tripartite consensus. When taking office in May 2015, its plan to revitalise the economy included a threat of additional austerity measures if the social partners did not agree to a 'social contract' to improve the country’s competitiveness. After some turbulent months with several rounds of negotiations and a major demonstration organised by the trade union confederations, negotiations for such a contract eventually broke down in December.

Despite the economic crisis, the Finnish Youth Guarantee Programme has been considered an overall success so far in helping young people to find work or training. Since its inception in 2013, public employment services have made significant efforts to reach and engage young people, and collaboration has grown among different local public actors.

A new report captures the changes in Finnish working life between 1977 and 2013. It points to a labour market that offers good opportunities for individual development and training. Nevertheless, many workers are uncertain about their future, with 20% fearing they would be made redundant.

Research about people on zero-hour contracts has been collected for the first time by Statistics Finland.

A recent report examining the effects of computerisation on the Finnish labour market suggests that as much as one third of Finnish employment is highly susceptible to computerisation in the next decade or two. While this outlook implies major future changes in Finnish employment, the estimated impacts may not necessarily imply future mass unemployment.

An extensive study of self-employment in Finland, the first of its kind, shows that full-time permanent employment is declining, with some workers being neither traditional wage earners nor entrepreneurs. This poses a challenge for the social security system. Some 6% of the workforce are self-employed and most say they are happy to be so.

A national survey of well-being at work concludes that only one in four Finnish workplaces can be seen as innovative. A policy report based on the survey identifies a number of ways in which the quality of working life could be improved, such as more systematic innovative thinking, better change management and wider use of new technology.