Finland’s Youth Barometer<\/a>, which show that only one in six young people views the future positively. The survey was previously highlighted by Centre Party leader Antti Kaikkonen, who warned that concerns over employment, income, housing and education were weighing on young people’s outlook.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The interpellation asks the government what measures it intends to take to reduce youth unemployment, restore confidence among younger generations and guarantee equal opportunities across different regions of Finland.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A central proposal from the Centre Party is the introduction of a guaranteed employment scheme for graduates. The plan was presented by Hilkka Kemppi, the party’s deputy leader and first signatory of the interpellation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Under the proposal, unemployment benefits paid to jobless young people and financial penalties charged to municipalities for unemployment would be redirected into wage subsidies. The subsidies would support employers in the private sector, municipalities and non-profit organisations that hire recent graduates.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kemppi said the aim was to ensure that every young person leaving education would have access to work.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She also called for the restoration of an earnings disregard within Finland’s unemployment benefit system. The measure would allow unemployed people to earn part-time income without losing the same amount in benefits, making temporary work more attractive.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Centre Party is also seeking an increase in entry-level summer jobs and internships, expansion of work-oriented education in lower secondary schools and stronger cooperation between educational institutions and employers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Beyond employment, the opposition raised concerns about youth wellbeing. The interpellation calls for equal access across Finland to family counselling services, mental health support and other services for children and families.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Movement Now leader Harry Harkimo said the issue was among the most important he had addressed in Parliament. Speaking as the father of three sons, he argued that employment insecurity affects major life decisions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“It is clear that starting a family is not the first thing on your mind if you do not have work and financial security,” Harkimo said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He criticised the government’s youth employment voucher programme, claiming that it had produced limited results. According to figures cited by Harkimo, 150 young people had secured employment lasting between three and six months by mid-April.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“We cannot treat young people this way. We simply have to do better,” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
HT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Centre Party and Movement Now have launched a parliamentary challenge against Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government, accusing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[87],"tags":[50962,307,158,5835,50963,113,50964,50965,1343,50961,2855,3926,50966,50960],"class_list":["post-98750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-helsinki","tag-antti-kurvinen","tag-centre-party","tag-finland","tag-graduates","tag-harry-harkimo","tag-helsinki","tag-hilkka-kemppi","tag-interpellation","tag-jobs","tag-movement-now","tag-parliament","tag-petteri-orpo","tag-youth-policy","tag-youth-unemployment"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116686172149198459","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}