Economics
World's Happiest Country Gets a Reality Check on Job Creation
- Finland readies for April general election amid slowing growth
- Saving the Nordic welfare model needs much more people working
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Finland is ranked the world’s happiest country, but its population is aging faster than most and that’s putting pressure on the government to get more people into jobs to help pay for those retiring.
Fixing the country’s labor market is likely to dominate the agenda when Finns go to the polls on April 14 to elect a new government. The new administration will need to raise the employment rate to 75 percent of working-age Finns by 2023, and to 80 percent after that, according to a civil servants’ report published on Monday that outlines the key challenges ahead.