Meanwhile, the unemployment rate of recent graduates has also increased. According to Akava, the rise in unemployment is not showing signs of a reversal or slowdown. Akava expects unemployment to further increase during the late winter and spring.

A bleak record was set in December 2024, when the number of highly educated unemployed surpassed the peak seen in 2015. This dark cloud has no silver lining but more of a leaden frame: more and more university graduates are now experiencing long-term unemployment.

What is the current unemployment situation among BBAs?

According to Tomi Husa, a specialist from Akava, unemployment among the highly educated workforce has been trending upward for a couple of years – preceding the general rise in unemployment. How have BBAs coped with the turmoil?

According to Husa, unemployment among BBAs has increased by 27.9 percent over the past 12 months, compared with 22 percent for all university graduates.

This means that 6,000 BBAs are now unemployed and 600 are laid-off.

"There are now more unemployed BBAs than ever before. The labor market's technical and economic sector, which employs many BBAs, has been hit hardest by unemployment. This partly explains the bleaker unemployment situation among BBAs," says Husa.

What is unemployment like among newly graduated BBAs?

Recent graduates who have not yet achieved an established position in the labor market have especially been affected. However, whereas the unemployment rate among all recent graduates from higher education institutions increased by more than a third (36.5 percent), the situation of recent BBA graduates was slightly better (32.4 percent).

"This, of course, is a positive signal."        

Husa also has data on how BBAs in different sectors have coped in the turbulent labor market. As expected, BBAs in the fields of finance, administration and marketing top the unemployment figures, followed by BBAs in data processing.

Increasing concerns about the workplace situation 

The latest membership survey of BBAs was released in March 2025. According to Joonas Miettinen, a labor market researcher, BBAs are increasingly concerned about the situation in their own workplace.

"Sixty-nine percent described the situation in their own workplace as being 'at least fairly stable', compared with 76 percent a year ago.

The respondents generally considered their personal situation to be better (81 percent described it as being 'at least fairly stable'), but this figure had also declined (from 86 percent in the previous survey).

When asked about layoffs or dismissals, 29 percent of respondents considered them to be possible in their own workplace,” says Miettinen.

BBAs in job search

Katriina Matinhelmi, Special Advisor at Professionals of Business and Technology, provides salary and unemployment counseling at the customer interface on a daily basis. Contacts from members have given Matinhelmi a clear picture of the situation:

"It's clear that more of our members are now looking for a job than they have for a while.

Jobs are now sought not only by unemployed BBAs but also by those looking to switch employers."

Matinhelmi says that longer job search times require determination and perseverance from job seekers.

"Our members have a high level of competence, but there are few vacancies."

Differences in vacancies

According to employers, they may receive hundreds of applications for a vacant position – but special expertise may still be in short supply.

“There are still vacancies for specialists, for which a dozen or so applications are submitted,” Matinhelmi says.

Unemployment among university graduates usually begins to decline slightly later than among other groups.

Joonas Miettinen does not expect the unemployment situation to ease soon: "At least not yet in the spring. It's also true that unemployment among the highly educated workforce usually begins to decline slightly later than among other groups."

    However, there is no reason to give up. Most BBAs still have jobs, and quite good ones for that matter.

"In recent years, we have seen a clear shift towards more demanding tasks. Approximately 80 percent of the members of Professionals of Business and Technology already hold expert or management positions," Matinhelmi says.

"BBAs also do not remain unemployed for very long."

How will employment develop?

When the sea rages, you turn your eyes towards the horizon: does any lighthouse offer comfort? At least Mika Maliranta, Director of the Labor Institute for Economic Research LABORE, expects the situation to improve relatively soon.

"In the short term, employment will improve this year, and the same trend will continue next year. This turnaround will have a direct impact on BBAs," Maliranta says.

Maliranta, who is also a part-time professor at the University of Turku, has conducted research focusing on economic growth factors: productivity growth and the functioning of the labor market. This lends confidence to Maliranta’s crystal ball. 

However, the medium term makes the future particularly interesting: Maliranta expects an era of strong economic growth that will catapult Finland into the next decade in good shape.

 "Employment and real wages will see good development."

What can we expect from the future?

There are two drivers for positive change: firstly, a downturn is ultimately always followed by an upturn, and this is what Maliranta is now expecting. The other driver – which has not received much attention – is production capacity.

"Our production capacity has been underutilized, but when the economy begins to improve – simply because of economic cycles – the increase in production capacity will accelerate."

Finland has done its RDI homework well. "We've seen product development, innovations and investments, and they offer us a good foundation."

According to Maliranta, growth is not driven by an individual industry but by good news from many different sectors.

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