Ministry of Employment and the Economy

The Ministry of Employment and the Economy started its operations as from 1 January 2008.

 

The Government Programme of Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen’s second Cabinet, dated 19 April 2007, included the decision that the new Ministry would “assume responsibility for the duties of the existing Ministry of Trade and Industry, the tasks of the Ministry of Labour, excluding migration and integration matters, and the functions of the Department for Development of Regions and Public Administration of the Ministry of the Interior, excluding the Regional and Local Administration Unit.”

Ministry of Trade and Industry

 The Department of Trade and Industry was established with a gracious decree of 9 August 1888, setting up two new administrative departments in connection with the Senate’s Economic Division.

 

The task of the Department of Trade and Industry, which started its operations on 1 October 1888, was to be responsible for those affairs of the Grand Duchy of Finland that concerned trade, shipping, pilotage and lighthouse services, hydrographical surveying, establishment of harbours, cleaning of fairways, traffic of mining and iron works, saw mills, mills, factories, occupations and handicraft, establishment of waterworks, production of spirits and malt liquors and taxation of these industries, as well as the patent agency, insurance companies, educational establishments for trade, shipping and industry, and legalisation of limited companies set up for various purposes.

 

The board of the pilotage and lighthouse services, the pilotage service, board of industry, the polytechnic institute, industrial schools, naval colleges, commercial schools and commercial agents were subordinate to the Department of Trade and Industry.

 

Senator Leopold Henrik Stanislaus Mechelin was the first head of the Department of Trade and Industry.The names of the administrative departments were changed into ministries by a decree issued on 27 November 1918. Thus the Department of Trade and Industry became Ministry of Trade and Industry.

 

Ministry of Labour

The Finnish public employment service started in 1903. To begin with, operations were concentrated into bigger cities, and the state compensated the cities for approximately half of the costs for the arranged work.

 

In the 1930’s, state control was established in the handling of unemployment. At first, the responsibility for labour matters in central government lay with the Ministry of Transport and Public Works. In 1970, the Ministry of Labour was formed from the Department of Labour of the above-mentioned ministry.

 

In 1989, the Ministry also became responsible for unemployment allowance matters, and at the same time its Finnish name changed from työvoimaministeriö to työministeriö. The responsibilities of the Ministry increased in 1997 with refugee and asylum seeker matters, as well as migration matters. In connection with the establishment of the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, matters related to refugees, asylum seekers and migration were transferred to the Ministry of the Interior.

 

Department for Development of Regions and Public Administration of the Ministry of the Interior

 

The Ministry of the Interior is one of the oldest ministries in Finland. It was founded in 1869. The Regional Department was established in 1984, when the Planning Department of the Government was transferred to the Ministry. The Government Programme of Matti Vanhanen’s second Cabinet included the decision that the Department for Development of Regions and Public Administration of the Ministry of the Interior would be transferred to the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, excluding the Regional and Local Administration Unit that was transferred to the Ministry of Finance.

 

 

Information on former ministers of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of the Interior is available at the Government’s ministerial information system.