Finland's public service sector will undergo significant restructuring next year, according to an Yle source within the government, which may lead to thousands of workers being laid off.
The changes will affect officials at ministries as well as public administration agencies, Yle understands, and the restructuring talks and redundancies may even start later this year.
The cuts are planned as part of the government's wide-ranging austerity package, as Finland looks to find about 9 billion euros worth of tax rises and spending cuts.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP) and Finance Minister Riikka Purra (Finns) laid out the details of a "difficult but necessary" budget covering the years 2025 to 2028, which included a cut of about 400 million euros from the budget for the civil service and other public administration.
This comes on top of a separate 250 million euro reduction, announced in the programme for government published last summer.
According to Yle's government source, the number of public sector employees has increased by about 8,000 over the past decade, and the government wants to trim the overall staff number as the country faces a chronic labour shortage in other sectors.
All Points North assesses the government's latest round of austerity measures and asks what the spending cuts and tax rises might mean for you. Listen to the episode via this embedded player, on Yle Areena, via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Defence, security not subject to cuts
Finance Minister Purra told a press conference on Tuesday that ministries with responsibility for national security as well as law and order — such as the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defence — will not face as steep budgetary cuts as other branches of government.
This means that the Justice, Interior and Defence ministries must cut their budgets by about 0.81 percent, while other departments will need to reduce theirs by 3.58 percent.
"Certain roles and jobs have been left out of the savings, because internal and external security must be guaranteed during these times. Budget reductions will not be made in regard to professional soldiers, police, border guards, judges, prosecutors and prison guards," Purra said.
Ministries themselves will decide how their budgets will be reduced, with the government overseeing the process.
Simo Pöyhönen, CEO of an organisation called Social Science Professionals (abbreviated in Finnish as YKA) which represents public sector workers, noted that the planned cuts will have a significant impact on the functioning of the state's administrative bodies.
"Within the budget, the additional cuts to state administration is a small part that will not save the economy. Within the state's administration, the heavy workload is already putting a strain on the current workforce," he said.
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