Unemployment security

This page does not include the temporary changes made in legislation because of the corona pandemic!

Unemployment security refers to the subsidies and benefits provided to unemployed people. These benefits include earnings-related unemployment allowance, basic unemployment allowance and labor market subsidy.

A person applying for the benefits must be registered as an unemployed jobseeker and renew their search for a job regularly in the manner instructed by the employment services.

Members of an unemployment fund, such as those who are members of the KOKO unemployment fund by virtue of their membership in the Union of Professional Engineers in Finland, are entitled to earnings-related allowance. Those who are not members of an unemployment fund are entitled to unemployment allowance paid by Kela.

Remember to register as an unemployed jobseeker with the TE Office no later than on the working day following the end of your employment. If you have not registered as an unemployed jobseeker, you are not eligible for unemployment security. The registration cannot be done retrospectively.

If you hand in notice yourself without a justified reason, the unemployment security will include a penalty consisting of a 90-day period during which you will not receive unemployment benefits (suspension period).

If you are considering resigning in a situation where you do not already have a new employment relationship, contact the Union’s customer service so that the Union can help you and find out whether you can hand in your notice without a suspension period.

The rule of thumb is that people cannot study on unemployment benefits, unless they have requested permission to do so from the TE Office in advance.

Part-time studying is possible if the studies began while working, at least six months before the termination of the employment – i.e. if the person has been working full time and studying part time.

Entrepreneurs do not, as a rule, fall under the scope of unemployment security. An entrepreneur may receive unemployment benefits from an entrepreneurs’ unemployment fund or from Kela, but this requires the business operations to be discontinued through bankruptcy, for example.

A person may also be a part-time entrepreneur, provided that the business operations have been started and engaged in for more than six months while they have also been in a full-time employment relationship.