The government will not abandon its pledge to create 100,000 new jobs in the current electoral term, says Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen. He was speaking during a debate on an interpolation measure tabled by three opposition parties.
Vanhanen admitted the task was difficult but not impossible with the help of widespread concensus.
The Prime Minister stressed success in creating new jobs was the responsibility of all those involved in decision making.
He emphasized the key importance of preserving Finland's competitiveness in the fight for new jobs. This could only be achieved by better productivity, he added.
Opposition conservative National Coalition Party leader Jyrki Katainen responded to the Prime Minister by saying the goal of creating 100,000 jobs had escaped out of reach.
As a remedy, he offered a recipe of reduced statutory employer payments, lower income taxes, changes to unfair business taxes and training to meet the specific needs of businesses.
The interpolation measure on employment policy and financing of public services was tabled by the National Coalition Party, the Christian Democrats and True Finns.
Unemployment Up in August
The parliamentary debate took place in the light of new unemployment figures released on Tuesday. Statistics Finland reports the unemployment rate increased by 0.3 percentage points in August to stand at 8%
A year old unemployment stood at 7.7% Some 209,000 Finns remain without work.
YLE24