Study title

Unemployed People's Views on the Impact of Government Decisions on their Everyday Lives 2025

Dataset ID Number

FSD4039

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD4039
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd4039

Data Type

Qualitative

Authors

• Forth, Alti (Tampere University)

Abstract

The data consists of writings by unemployed job seekers. The data was originally collected for a master's thesis examining how the political decisions made by the Orpo government are reflected in the everyday lives of unemployed job seekers.

The aim of the call for writings was to find out what the changes and cuts made by the government in the areas of social, health, and employment policy mean in practice. Respondents were free to write about their experiences, but the call for submissions also offered a few guiding questions to help them. The questions provided an opportunity to reflect on, for example, how the government's decisions have affected the respondent's everyday life, livelihood, or the services they use, as well as how it feels to be an unemployed job seeker in the current climate. The questions also asked whether the respondent felt heard and seen in society, whether their attitude toward the future had changed as a result of the government's actions, and what they would like decision-makers to understand about their life.

Background information was asked about age group, education, duration of unemployment, and whether the respondent had participated in employment promotion services as an unemployed job seeker.

Keywords

expectations; government policy; job hunting; standard of living; unemployed; unemployment; well-being

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Employment (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Unemployment (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Individual datasets

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Data Collector

• Forth, Alti (Tampere University)

Collection Dates

2025-09-23 – 2025-11-23

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Unemployed job seekers in Finland

Time Method

Cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Non-probability: Availability

The author of the data distributed the call for writings by approaching national associations that work with unemployed job seekers in one way or another. The organisations distributed the call for writings through their own information channels. In addition, the author of the data distributed the call for writings on their own social media channels and in the Facebook group "Joukkovoima leikkauspolitiikkaa vastaan" (Collective power against austerity policies).

Collection Mode

Self-administered writings and/or diaries: Web-based (Penna textual data collection tool)

Research Instrument

Data collection guidelines: Self-administered writings guide

Data Files

60 writings in txt format. Additionally, the data were organised into an easy to use HTML version and a CSV version.

Data File Language

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.

Qualitative data are available in their original language only and are not translated.

Data Version

1.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

Where necessary, direct or indirect identifiers, such as place of residence and detailed job descriptions, were removed from the writings archived at FSD.

A total of 68 writings were collected, of which 61 were approved by the authors for archiving. One writing containing only background information was removed from the archived dataset.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Forth, Alti (Tampere University): Unemployed People's Views on the Impact of Government Decisions on their Everyday Lives 2025 [dataset]. Data version 1.0 (2026-02-05). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd4039; URN: https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD4039

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

FSD has not been informed of any publications related to the data.