Because of excellent connections Jyväskylä was a busy market place even before first permanent settlements were founded in the current city centre. The establishment of Finland’s first three Finnish-speaking schools: the lycée in 1858, the teachers’ college in 1863, and the girls’ school in 1864 proved to be the most important steps from the point of view of the later development of Jyväskylä. Educational services became a heart of the economic growth of the city. In 1912 Wilhelm Schauman founded a plywood mill on the shores of Jyväsjärvi. Soon also other kind of forest based businesses opened factories and premises in the city. Thus, forest, pulp and paper became the second stronghold of the economy in Jyväskylä. Later the high quality education and paper machinery industry tempted information technology businesses to settle in the city.
Nowadays main sources of livelihood in Jyväskylä are educational and health care services, paper machinery production, information technology and renewable energy. Most important private employers are paper machinery producer Metso ltd., retail trade company Keskimaa Cooperative Society, real estate service company ISS and wind turbine gear manufacturer Moventas. Biggest public employers are the City of Jyväskylä, Central Finland Health Care District, University of Jyväskylä and the Air Force Academy.
As of 2010 only 1% of the labour force work on the primary sector, 21% on the secondary sector, and 78% on the service sector of the economy.
In April 2012 the unemployment rate in Jyväskylä was 12.2%, which was higher than average in Finland (9,8% in 1/2012), due to the high number of students and challenged industries. As of July 2012 there were about 61.000 jobs in Jyväskylä. The average income per income earner was 24.380€ in 2010.
In 2011 Jyväskylä topped in an image evaluation research among businesses. The city reached the highest score of Finnish big cities in the
