Translation

SPEECH BY PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC MARTTI AHTISAARI
AT THE "ACTIVE CITIZEN IN A CIVIC ORGANISATION" EMPLOYMENT SEMINAR ON 18.11.1998

I thank the Finnish Sports Federation, and especially the Chairman of its Working Group on Employment Matti Ahde, for arranging this seminar. The purpose is to evaluate the achievements to date of employment projects launched by voluntary organisations and to investigate possibilities of stimulating activity on the part of citizens in order to improve the employment situation. The "Work and Quality of Life from Sport and Exercise" employment project launched by the Federation in 1996 has created jobs for 4,300 unemployed persons in less than three years. When I presented my ideas about the employment potential of the Third Sector, the Federation boldly began putting them into practice. Valuable contributions to this joint effort have also been made by the Ministries of Labour and Social Affairs and Health, the National Board of Taxes, municipalities, the labour market federations, some voluntary organisations (the SPARK project) and the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare. I am expecting positive news also from this direction.

From slump to upswing

The deep recession into which the Finnish economy fell in the early years of the 1990s and its grave consequences for the labour market created astonishment. How is it possible for an industrial country to go from full employment to mass unemployment in four years? The closest points of comparisons that can be found are in the Great Depression of the early 1930s.

Now we are back on a course of good development. The Finnish economy’s recovery from the recession has been uniquely vigorous. Since 1994, growth in aggregate output has been at record levels, foreign indebtedness has declined substantially, consumer prices have risen only slightly, employment has turned onto a course of clear growth and unemployment is falling.

The development in employment has not, however, matched that of the economy. Work to boost job-creation must be determinedly continued. This year, Finland’s unemployment rate is almost down to the EU average. This is an achievement worth mentioning, although we remain below the employment rate of the late 1980s. Thanks for this are due also to the civic organisations who have made their contributions to job-creation.

It has taken determined and sustained efforts to bring about a positive development in the economy and employment. In 1995 the Government set itself the goal of halving employment during its four-year term. It incorporated many of the proposals of the Pekkanen working group in both its general programme and its special programme setting out the measures that it intended to implement over the next few years in order to tackle unemployment. These measures have had a significant positive impact on the employment situation. They have given citizens a clear message that the State is doing its best to lower unemployment.

A good level of employment can not be ensured merely through Government decisions; other things are needed as well. As the job-creation projects presented here demonstrate, active voluntary organisations blessed with initiative can also significantly improve employment. Every job is worth its weight in gold when we are trying to counter long-term and youth unemployment and prevent exclusion and passivisation. This is precisely the kind of civic activity that we need to put things right in Finland.

The President’s Working Group on Employment

When I assumed my present office, I felt a duty to tackle the unemployment problem. Since the President’s means of influencing economic policy are limited, I wanted to formulate a programme of goals, which those with actual responsibility for economic policy could then set about implementing.

In June 1994 I appointed a working group under the chairmanship of Matti Pekkanen and with a membership comprising influential figures from the economic sector and society in general. The working group explored obstacles in the way of permanently lowering employment, collected studies and proposals drafted by experts and presented clear recommendations for measures that would effectively reduce unemployment. It took only three months to produce its final report.

The Pekkanen working group outlined a strategy and measures that would reduce unemployment to 200,000 by the turn of the millennium, but the terms were tough. Unemployment was at its worst in autumn 1994 and the policies proposed by the working group aroused distrust. In the view of the working group, growth in aggregate output at an annual average rate of 5% up to the year 2000 was a central prerequisite for lowering unemployment. Special measures to boost demand for personnel and strengthen the functioning of the labour market would likewise be required.

The growth called for by the working group was generally considered unrealistic, but we are not falling very far short of the goal. In 1995–1998 aggregate output has been growing at about 5% a year. Without such rapid economic growth, the improvement in employment would have been substantially slower.

The working group called for a national commitment to reducing unemployment, because combatting joblessness is a matter for the whole nation. It proposed measures with a direct bearing on the labour market also in the Third Sector, which was then a virtually unknown concept: the development of new forms of cooperative endeavour and the promotion of cottage industries. The measures proposed by the working group and the goals set for economic development have already been achieved astonishingly well. We must not, however, allow ourselves to be lulled into complacency, because it looks like a period of slower growth lies ahead.

The Third Sector

Over the long term, the Third Sector is a factor that must be taken seriously when seeking new means of improving employment. Its driving force is activity on the part of citizens. There are tasks and opportunities in society, especially on the local level, in which the initiative and activity of voluntary organisations is irreplaceable. When activities are being developed, there is a need for professionals, volunteers and a positive attitude on the part of the public authorities.

When one is encouraging voluntary organisations to be active, supporting those who are participating without remuneration is a central question. The authorities should seek means of eliminating obstacles to the work of voluntary organisations and of improving their opportunities to raise funds. Society will not solve the financial problems of these organisations by giving them direct cash payments, because it simply does not have the resources for that, but the public authorities can indirectly support voluntarism in many ways and create more living space for it, for example by improving the environment in which it functions.

Estimates have been made of the extent to which the Third Sector can provide job opportunities for the unemployed and especially for the long-term unemployed, who live under a threat of exclusion. The Third Sector’s share of employment in European Union countries varies from 2 to 4%. The percentage in Finland was estimated in 1994 to be just under 4. In the United States, however, nearly 7% of the labour force is working in the Third Sector. Thus there is potential.

The projects presented at this seminar seem to be based on premises that make them exemplary for the Third Sector. I place a high value on the work that the participating organisations have done to make effective use of the employment potential inherent in voluntary civic activities.

Quality of working life

The public discourse revolves to an astonishing degree around the assumption that one party’s gain is another’s loss. People focus their attention on details of legislation, although it is building a productive and human working life that is the key to lasting success. The skill and will to work, technology of which we can justifiably be proud as well as a tradition of accord are the proven resources of Finnish working life. It is time to combine these assets with development of work processes if we are seriously aiming for higher competitiveness and better quality and want to tackle the problem of human exhaustion.

Workplaces that Workplaces that strive for innovation, focus on cooperation and markets, compete on efficiency, avail themselves of the potential of teamwork and other collaborative methods, where the work permits learning and development and where the remuneration system is an incentive to raise productivity, and which are not hierarchic employ markedly more people than other workplaces. They are the 20% of workplaces that have concentrated strongly on improving conditions. There is room for improvement in the 80% that can be categorised as traditional.

What does this mean then? It means that the results of work will not be made any better by squeezing workers harder and harder. When people enjoy themselves better at work, productivity - and consequently also employment - improve. This has been borne out by recent studies.

Work which does not provide opportunities for innovation nor allow technology to be used in combination with and in support of human efforts and business leads to employment- and environment-related problems, exhausted employees and unsustainable business operations. Who can afford such a waste?

In policies on employment, business and the information society - and without forgetting regional policy - serious attention must be paid to organising work better. The information society is not a technical one, but rather a social one that uses technological means and work arrangements to support human abilities, a society where employment and prosperity can grow. Efforts to develop working life convey a positive message: By doing good work we create more jobs.

I wish the voluntary organisations success with their employment schemes, and I also wish success to all others who can contribute to promoting job-creation: employers, entrepreneurs, workers and officials. The success of the nation is our shared project, one in which the involvement of everyone is called for. We need a national state of will.