Iltalehti's front page is not one to brighten the dark autumn morning. "440,000 Finns! The stark truth about unemployment" is not something that's going to leave many people in a sunny frame of mind, but the paper reckons official stats play down the problem and is not going to be quiet about it.
Yesterday Statistics Finland and the Ministry of Employment announced their monthly employment figures. As is customary, the Statistics Finland total was lower than the Ministry's, with the former calculating the number at 218,000 and the latter's methodology giving 315,000. Iltalehti, meanwhile, reckons the true figure is much higher: 440,000.
They asked Pekka Tiainen, an official at the ministry to estimate the true scale of the problem, and he had a simple methodology. Some 572,000 people were looking for new work, and 130,000 of them were in work, leaving 440,000 unemployed. That method includes stay-at-home parents who'd prefer to be at work, students and others not in the official stats.
Iltalehti does note that the figure, while huge, is still only about two-thirds of the number left jobless at the peak of the 1990s recession.
Sub sightings
As the Swedish submarine saga continues, Finnish media joined the chorus asking hard questions of Sweden's military. Ilta-sanomat speculates on what exactly might lurk beneath the waves in the Stockholm archipelago, while Iltalehti baldly admits that "Confirmed information is scarce".
That is in large part because the Swedes have not yet turned up anything despite extensive searches. The Guardian had mentioned the diminished Swedish navy in an editorial that suggested Nato membership, and now Ilta-Sanomat has also criticised reductions in Swedish defence spending.
IS recommends an immediate boost in defence spending--a handy pointer for the new government, which is due to announce its first budget on Thursday.
Räty set for debut
In sports news, Helsingin Sanomat covers the expected debut tonight of a goaltender at second-tier (Mestis) ice hockey team Kiekko-Vantaa. The goaltender has been in North America, done a bit of coachig, and even played for the national team. She's also a woman.
At 25-years-old, Noora Räty has often commented on how difficult it is to make ends meet as a female hockey player. There are few professional opportunities and income has to come from coaching--which leaves little time for elite-level training. Räty is at the top of her game, named the number one goalie in the world, and she has been training with Kiekko-Vantaa since the summer.
"This is a fantastic situation, as I can now just train and play," HS quotes Räty as saying. "Now I even have some free time."
Tonight she'll be between the pipes, rather than on the bench, as she starts her first game in goal against Savonlinna club SaPKo. SHS reports that she's also turned down call-ups to the national team, saying she does not have sufficient time to play international hockey on top of her normal workload.
