| 1971 | Planning Secretary, National Board of Health |
| since 1972 | lectures and presentations at foreign seminars, conferences and universities |
| 1972 | -83 Senior Inspector, National Board of Welfare |
| 1980 | -83 Chairman of the State Committee for Gipsy Issues |
| 1983 | -84 Head of Welfare Department, Vantaa City Welfare Office |
| 1984 | -85 Head of Information, National Board of Welfare |
| 1985 | -86 Senior Adviser, Ministry of Health and Welfare |
| 1986 | -92 Senior Researcher, National Board of Welfare and Health |
| 1991 | -93 Co-ordinator of Research Program on Disadvantage and Deprivation by the Academy of Finland |
| 1992 | -97 Research Director, Head of Social Research Unit, National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health |
| since 1993 | Docent of Social Policy at the University of Lapland |
| 1993 | FINNIDA Consultative Expert in Welfare Issues in Zambia (MCDSS) |
| 1994 | Expert invited by Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP), International Social Science Council, for State-of-the-Art Review of Poverty Research in Nordic Countries |
| -96 Co-ordinator of the Research Program on the Economics of Welfare by the Academy of Finland |
| Member of a joint sociological research team of Moscow State Social University and STAKES, Finland |
| since 1995 | Docent of Social Policy at the University of Turku |
| 1995 | Member of the High Level Group on Social Exclusion set up by the EU Commission/DG V |
| since 1995 | Country co-ordinator and editor in a Nordic comparative research project on the Nordic Welfare States in the 1990s (publishing in 1999 and 2000) |
| 1996 | United Nations Preventive Deployment Force Macedonia; Member of the Intersectoral Mission Expert Group, May 27 - June 6, 1996, Skopje, Macedonia |
| 1997 | -98 Detached National Expert in the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, Dublin, Ireland |
| 1998 | Social Policy Analyst, Albanian Social Development Assessment Mission |
| European Parliament Public Hearing on Tackling Social Exclusion, June 31, Brussels, invited speaker |
| 1998-2001 | Research Professor at STAKES |
| 2000 | -01 Head of Research Group on Welfare Policies and Social Problems, STAKES |
| -01 Council of Europe, Reporter of a project on poverty and anti-poverty policies in Finland, Belgium, Ireland, France, Malta, Latvia, Bulgaria and Czech Republic |
| Leader of a seven country research consortium on the role of social assistance as means of integration and inclusion contracted by the European Commission |
| since 2001 | Deputy Director General of STAKES |
| 2002 | -03 The National Social Sector Development Project, Rapporteur ad int (Ministry of Social Affairs and Health) |
