Manufacturing Jobs on Decline in Tartu, Study Finds
A new study finds that thousands of industrial jobs have disappeared from the Tartu region in the last decade, marking a transformation as the economy changed course toward services.
Some of the worst hit areas were furniture and sewing, with 1,100 and 700-800 jobs lost respectively, reported ERR radio. The industrial jobs that did see growth, with a few hundred new jobs, were metal and wood processing.
Other nearby towns, in Põlva, Valga and Võru counties, have seen less of a decline in manufacturing jobs.
Meanwhile in Tartu, service-based jobs have managed to make up for the decline in manufacturing. IT and technology companies have also seen significant growth.
The study was a competitiveness analysis produced by the Tartu Science Park and University of Tartu researchers.