As my predecessor liked to say, if poor working conditions drove success, Romania would be wealthier than Switzerland. But it is not. A sufficient pool of high-quality talent, the ability to attract talent from around the world, ideas and thoughts that are worth pursuing and the ability to invest ultimately matter more.
As I follow the public debate on how Finland, Finnish companies and people can succeed and how education and welfare services are ensured, the only key to success seems to be cost competitiveness. That is, the worse the working conditions and the lower the pay, the greater the success.
We should shift our focus to the creation of growth, added value and new productivity. According to the Taxpayers’ Association of Finland, 2023 was already the third consecutive year in which the purchasing power of salary earners fell. The purchasing power of the net salary of a middle-income salary earner was more than six per cent lower in 2023 than in 2020. And still, we are seeing only meagre growth. And not just meagre. There is hardly any growth at all!
We should be urgently creating more work in Finland that is so productive that it is worth paying generously for and also taking good care of the people behind it.
A great way to pursue this goal is the government's investments in RDI, an effective university network and university-business collaboration. The government also decided to make an investment of a total of 300 million euros in the state capital investment company, aiming, together with private funding, to build a package of 900 million euros for growth companies. This will hopefully brighten the investment outlook of growth companies in an otherwise challenging situation.
Our Labour Market Director Teemu Hankamäki discusses current labour market issues in more detail further in this article and also explores the theme of competitiveness. I warmly recommend reading his thoughts.
The article is the editorial of TEK Magazine 3/2024.
