In July, the number of recipients of earnings-related allowance at A-kassa was down five percent compared to June. 21,445 members received earnings-related allowance in July, representing a total of 8.8 percent of all members. The share of recipients of lay-off period daily allowance of all recipients of earnings-related allowance kept going down. At the end of the month, it was 29.6 percent which is 2.9 percentage points less than in June.
The number of recipients of earnings-related allowance has been on the decline since May, which is quite normal for the summer months. This year, the decline started later than last year but developed sharper. As expected, the number of recipients went down more moderately in July than in June – the number dropped only five percent compared to June. However, compared to July of last year, the number of recipients was 14.2% higher. Usually, the number of recipients of earnings-related allowance has taken an upward turn again in August. This is expected to happen this year, too.
The share of laid-off persons among those receiving earnings-related allowance from A-kassa kept going down in July, something which has been evident since May. Even though the decline in July was not as sharp as it was in June, the share of laid-off persons decreased by almost three percentage points, standing at 29.6% at the end of the month. In general, the share of laid-off persons increases after the summer, and even though the trend has been somewhat exceptional this year, we may see this development again.
The share of recipients of adjusted daily allowance remained at the June level, totalling 17.3% out of all recipients of earnings-related allowance.
Earnings-related allowance costs up
This year, the downward trend for A-kassa’s earnings-related allowance costs halted already in July, whereas last year the turn did not take place until August. In July, earnings-related allowance costs went up 0.9 million euros compared to June. Earnings-related allowance costs totalled 30.2 million euros in July, an increase of 18.4% from July 2023.
Earnings-related allowance applications and number of payout days in July
In July, the number of payout days totalled 19.1, which was 1.3 days more than in June. The number of payout days also went up by 0.5 days in comparison to July of last year.
In July, A-kassa received a total of 27,597 earnings-related allowance applications, 2,024 less than in June. The number of applications was only 6.5% higher than in July the previous year, whereas in other months this year the growth has been significantly higher than in the previous year, as high as 20% to 30%.
The distribution of application types remained normal. Most of the applications, 60.4%, were follow-up applications. The share of first-time applications increased slightly from June, to 6.8%. Applications for adjusted allowance made up 32.8% of all applications.
Members satisfied with our customer service
A-kassa’s phone service received a total of 5,785 calls in July, with an average response time of 1:55 minutes. Based on our phone service feedback survey, 79% of respondents were highly satisfied and 16% quite satisfied with the service.
We received 3,948 messages via our eService in July, up 10% from June. Our chat service hosted a total of 1,071 discussions in July, with an average queuing time of 42 seconds and an average discussion length of 11:27 minutes. Based on our chat service feedback survey, 73% of respondents were highly satisfied and 17% quite satisfied with A-kassa’s service.
Monthly statistical summaries are available at the A-kassa website