In the mid-1960s, there were also other kinds of omens in the air. As forest work became mechanized, less labour was needed in the forests, and the labour shortage was replaced by large-scale unemployment. Milk production also started to suffer, as the national butter mountains grew, subsidies were paid for the packaging of the fields and the number of cows on the farms decreased. Large number of young people applied for paid work in factories in Southern Finland and Sweden. Whole families also moved out of Kuusamo, and the population dropped in the mid-1970s to the figures of twenty years ago. Its own number was formed by young people who had completed a vocational or matriculation degree, for whom there was no work in Kuusamo and who therefore did not return to their household after their studies.
