Transfer of TE Services to municipalities – what it means for customers
The job search services available to unemployed persons will change on 1 January 2025. TE Services in their current form will end, with the municipal employment services taking over their responsibilities. This will not affect the unemployment benefits you may get from Kela. If you lose your job or are laid off temporarily, register as a jobseeker at työmarkkinatori.fi.
At the start of 2025, the responsibility for providing public employment services will be transferred from the state to the municipalities. This is known as the TE Services 2024 reform.
Employment areas, which consist of municipalities, will take over the counselling and services offered to unemployed jobseekers on 1 January 2025. Municipalities will begin to provide counselling on job search, recruitment and upskilling for both individual and employer customers. The state TE Offices will be closed, with staff transferring over to the municipal administrations.
Employment services will have the status of a statutory municipal service comparable to schools and early childhood education. A central goal of the reform is to bring services closer to the customers, i.e. the local population.
If you are a current TE Services client, the employment services in your home municipality (työmarkkinatori.fi) will begin to provide counselling and services for job search on 1 January 2025. If you are currently enrolled in a local government pilot on employment, you will get job search services from your municipality starting from 1 January 2025.
Current TE Services clients do not have to take any steps because of the reform. Your case file will be transferred automatically to your municipality's employment services, which will contact you in due course.
The transfer will not result in any changes to your status when it comes to the unemployment benefits available from Kela, and you do not have to contact Kela. As long as you remain unemployed, you must regularly complete an unemployment status report based on which Kela will pay you unemployment benefits.
If you lose your job or are temporarily laid off, register as an unemployed jobseeker at työmarkkinatori.fi. After that, you can apply for unemployment benefits from Kela or your unemployment fund. The employment services in your home municipality (työmarkkinatori.fi) will begin to offer counselling and services for job search starting 1 January 2025.
As part of the reform, the task of issuing labour policy statements on unemployed jobseekers, including potential barriers that may exist to the payment of unemployment benefits, will be taken over by the municipal employment services and the KEHA Centre (keha-keskus.fi).
Just as before the reform, Kela will continue to use these statements as a basis for its decisions on unemployment benefits for individual customers.
The reform is not expected to cause delays in Kela unemployment benefits. However, should there be a temporary slowdown in the processing of applications for unemployment benefits, we will provide further information to our unemployed customers in the Unemployment section of our website and in OmaKela.
Go to OmaKela to see if your application for unemployment benefits has arrived at Kela and if it has been decided. If the application has not yet been decided, you will see an estimate showing how long it will take to process it.
Työmarkkinatori will continue to provide customer service online for unemployed jobseekers.
If you prefer to get employment services by phone or by visiting a customer service point, go to the Työmarkkinatori regional pages for the contact information of your municipality’s employment services.
Contact your municipality's employment services:
Contact your municipality's employment services through työmarkkinatori.fi if you have a question about
- registering as a jobseeker
- the work requirement
- a labour policy statement
- the waiting period for unemployment benefits
- employment promoting services.
Go to the Työmarkkinatori regional pages for the contact information of your municipality’s employment services.
Contact Kela:
If you have questions about the unemployment benefits paid by Kela, you can contact us by sending a message in OmaKela or calling our customer service numbers.