User:Madisonochoa/COVID-19 pandemic in Finland

Fiscal & Employment Response

The government created budget proposals utilizing 3 percent of the GDP towards pension payments, social assistance programs, and grants to both dependent and self-employed workers. Amongst a few supplementary budget proposals presented by the Finnish government, one proposal on May 8, 2020, provided supplements for restaurants, businesses, public vaccine research, and state ownership. With the service sector encompassing over two thirds of the labor force, the government put in place a strategy to revive the restaurant industry. A supplement procured on May 6, 2020 provided restaurants and cafes with financial subsidies of up to 15% of their total losses as a result of the pandemic.

In addition to coming to the aid of businesses, Finland also provided support for their constituents employment protection by offering immediate unemployment assistance in March of 2020 to those who faced lay-offs and self-employed individuals. This got rid of the five day lag time of receiving unemployment benefits. As of 2019, Finland has the highest social protection in public unemployment spending at 1.94% of the overall GDP among the OECD countries. As of the second quarter of 2021, Finland employs 71.9% of the working population. While there was a sharp decline in the active labor force in Q2 of 2020, the labor force is forecasted to steadily rise and is currently above 2.7 million people.