South Häme employment area will handle the tasks of the TE office from next year

The South Häme employment area, formed by the city of Riihimäki and the municipalities of Hausjärvi, Janakkala and Loppi, will start operating on the 1st of January 2025, when employment and economic services will be transferred from the state to the municipalities. With this TE reform, the state's employment and business offices, or TE offices, will be abolished. One of the goals of the reform is to increase the customer orientation of employment services.

– It will not be necessary to go to another municipality in search of employment services from the municipalities of our employment area, because we serve customers in Riihimäki, Hausjärvi, Janakkala as well as Loppi. The change is positive, because nowadays in our area of ​​operation there is a service point of the TE office only in Riihimäki. In addition, as a result of the municipal experiment, the employment and integration services of the municipality of Janakkala have already offered the services of the TE office in addition to the municipality's own services, says Anna-Riitta Kujala, the vitality director of the city of Riihimäki, under whose authority the employment area will operate.

Even though the service provider changes at the turn of the year, customers of the TE office do not have to do anything special. The employment area of South Häme will inform about possible changes on its website.

The employment area also organizes the services of immigrants who are job seekers. The new Integration Act will enter into force at the same time as the TE reform on the 1st of January 2025. From then on, the municipality is responsible for promoting the integration of both unemployed job seekers and those outside the labor force.

Power to employment

Until the end of 2024, employment and business services will be offered by the state's TE offices, which there are 15 in Finland. Hausjärvi, Janakkala, Loppi and Riihimäki belong to the operation area of the TE office of Häme. From the beginning of 2025, the tasks of the TE offices will be carried out by the employment areas formed by the municipalities. There will be 45 employment areas in Finland. Four different employment areas will be created in the operation area of the Häme TE office, i.e. Kanta-Häme and Päijät-Häme: South Häme employment area, TyöHäme, Päijät-Häme employment area and Lahti employment area.

The employment area of ​​South Häme is one of the smallest in terms of workforce both in Häme and nationally. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has required that in order to form an employment area, the workforce of the municipality or municipalities must be at least 20 000 people. In the employment area of ​​South Häme live about 28 000 people, who are actively available for the labor market. The employment area intends to turn its small size to its advantage:

– We firmly believe that a small employment area can get to know local companies and residents better than a larger employment area. As a small employment area, we have excellent opportunities to develop employment services to suit the needs of our residents and local entrepreneurs. As a result, we hope to be able to connect employers and job seekers efficiently and humanely. This is how we increase the vitality of our region and create faith in the future, says vitality director Kujala.

The development of services of the employment area will continue for a long time

The reform is being prepared by a steering group and six sub-working groups. The city of Riihimäki is the municipality responsible for the employment area, but the steering group and sub-working groups also have representatives from the municipalities of Hausjärvi, Janakkala and Loppi, and the Häme TE office. A lot of work has been done to prepare the employment area, and the pace will accelerate towards the end of the year.

– The TE reform is a huge change for us, but fortunately we are preparing the employment area of ​​South Häme with a very wide pool of experts. Each working group still has a lot to do before the turn of the year, but together we will succeed, says Riihimäki city administrative director Petri Hirvonen, who has led the preparation of the employment area.

All the preparation is aimed at ensuring that, after the year has passed, the employment area will at least be able to carry out its statutory duties. Honing the operation to its peak will probably be left later.

- Our services will hardly be perfect in January, but their development will continue well into next year. We will do our best, promises administrative director Hirvonen.

Meet us on site or online

The employment area will serve residents and entrepreneurs in every municipality in the area. The addresses and service hours of the offices will be confirmed by the end of 2024.

You can also apply for jobs and employees online. A meeting place for jobs and jobseekers Job Market Finland (Työmarkkinatori.fi) will remain in use, so information, services and vacancies related to working life will continue to be available there. In addition, the employment area of ​​South Häme has its own website at the web address www.ehtapalvelut.fi. The website will be supplemented throughout the fall, and it will contain useful information for different customer groups about the services and activities of the employment area.