Oulu declared itself a ‘technology town’ twenty years ago and is pushing itself as an IT and health care/environmental/bio development centre. The town strategy calls this “the ability to revise and transform the business structure so as to keep up with a changing world,” and hopes its ‘growth companies’ and new businesses starting up will continue to push its global productivity, cycling more investors into the area.

At a random sample on April 17 2007 the Employment office of Oulu Region advertised 645 jobs in the area, from kindergarten teacher to software engineer to physiotherapist to priest – the biggest single categories salespersons (120), health care workers (80) teachers (70), restaurant staff (33), and cleaners (28). Loosely combined, the numbers of places in traditional industry such as forestry or metal work came to about 150.

Oulu’s several recruiting agencies such as Manpower, who focus on IT, engineering, and sales, EilaKaisla, Varamiespalvelu-Yhtiöt, and Barona, who recruit for industry and construction, are growing evidence that, as the regional manager of Manpower puts it, “companies are thinking more carefully about what kinds of people they need.”

For an expat moving to Oulu, developing Finnish language skills would obviously open up more opportunities in the service industry – though for many IT jobs English is the official language, and the general level of English is enough that a business could function with a basic Finnish vocabulary. If you’re looking to migrate to a specific job, make sure local authorities recognise your qualification. Some vocations are more flexible than others, but some – like nursing or library work – legally require a Finnish qualification.