All is not well for Finland’s labour market. This time around the problem is not on the demand side. It’s in the supply!
Yes, the country of Finland is facing acute shortage in the skilled labour force. As a result, to counter this, Finnish Minister of Economic Affairs and Employment, Tuula Haatainen during a visit to India said that Finland’s government is planning to double the number of work immigrants entering the country and triple international student placements by 2030.
During her visit to India, she pitched the country as a work destination for Indians.
Finnish Minister Pitches Finland to Attract Indian Talent
In particular, Ms. Haatainen, who signed a “joint declaration of intent on Migration and Mobility” with Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan, said that Finland hopes to attract workers in the technology and information and communications technology (ICT) sectors as well as nurses from India. However, the Minister said that while her government hopes to smooth the path for work migrants, a path to citizenship may not be on offer as yet.
She said that “We see that India has such a pool of professional talent that that we need in Finland. We need more workforce, we need talent, we need professionals, skilled people. If they want to enter to Finland, I see that it is valuable for both sides, that people go abroad, and also earn and learn something there”.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said a joint declaration of intent was signed last week “to facilitate mobility of students, academics, researchers, business people & professionals and to combat irregular migration”.
Recently, our nation has also signed agreements with Germany this year and the United Kingdom (U.K.) last year.
As businesses recover from Covid losses and the border lockdowns enforced in the past two years, there is a keen interest in the Indian skilled manpower.
Finland is a nation of 5.5 million people and with only 2.5 million in the workforce, the country is facing an ageing population with an increasing rate of retirement.
70% Finnish Companies Face Skilled Labour Shortage
As per the survey conducted by the Finland’s Employment Ministry in March, more than 70% of companies in Finland are now hampered by a shortage of skilled labour.
In addition to the same, she said that the Finnish government wants to invest about 4% of its GDP in the Research and Development (R&D) sector, but needs more trained employees for that.
Hence, the country is currently facilitating work migrants along with families, offering daycare, education and healthcare as well as undertaking half the cost of teaching them the local language.
The minister said that “One area where we need professionals, other than technology and ICT is the healthcare sector. We understand that in India, there are very highly qualified nurses who would be willing to come to work in Finland. We lack people also in the service sector particularly in tourism, hostels and restaurants as well”.
The top five occupations seeing shortages are all in the healthcare sector, including nurses, social work and counselling staff, general practitioners, and senior physicians, as per the Ministry report that published an “occupation barometer” earlier this year.
Finland, whose Prime Minister Sanna Marin was one of the youngest heads of government worldwide at 34, is in particular seeking a gender balance in migrants.
“We have 1,500 students and 15,000 diaspora from India in Finland at present. And the government has decided that all together from anywhere, we are going to double the number of work-related immigration until 2030. And triple the number of foreign students,” Ms. Haateinen said.
