Finland's machinery and metal products sector added jobs and orders in the second quarter of 2026, according to new data from Technology Industries of Finland.
Employment in the sector reached its highest level since the 2008 financial crisis, while orders across the wider technology industry grew 13% from the first quarter and 19% from a year earlier.
Finnish technology industry new orders
Quarterly new orders received by Finnish technology industry companies, split between exports and the domestic market.
Machinery and metal products employed 138,200 people at the end of June 2026, the most since the financial crisis and 2,500 more than the lowest point of the last downturn. Order backlogs across the technology industry rose 8% between March and June, and a key demand indicator hit +20, its highest since late 2021. The technology industry's 2025 revenue came in at EUR 104 billion, up 2.8% from 2024.
Finnish technology industry order backlog
Quarter-end order backlog for Finnish technology industry companies, split between exports and the domestic market.
Orders up 13 percent, backlogs up 8 percent
Metric | Value |
|---|---|
Machinery and metal products employment | 138,200 (end of June 2026) |
New orders, technology industry | +13% Q1 to Q2 2026, +19% year on year |
Order backlog, technology industry | +8% end of March to end of June 2026 |
Demand indicator (tender request net balance) | +20 at end of June 2026, highest since late 2021 |
Technology industry revenue, 2025 | EUR 104 billion, +2.8% from 2024 |
Jobs across the whole technology industry dipped slightly this quarter. That drop came from services, like IT and consulting, not from manufacturing.
A signal worth tracking for supplier guidance
An 8% jump in order backlogs in one quarter is worth watching, especially for suppliers tied to maritime, defense, and data centers. It's the kind of signal that shows up later in company guidance. Listeds' Signals Platform tracks these order and demand signals across Finnish listed companies, so leaders can see the shift early.
This connects to last week's Listeds piece on Finland's Q2 GDP, where growth beat the US but came from fewer people working fewer hours overall. This new data adds a twist: the technology industry, one of Finland's leading export sectors, is actually adding jobs and orders. The dip in total technology-industry employment was attributed to services, particularly information technology and design and consulting, while machinery and metal products employment returned to its highest level since the financial crisis. Worth reading together: Finland grew faster than the US in Q2 but with fewer workers and fewer hours.
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