Employment office: Our reserves are too big
Töötukassa, the employment office, said its reserves are too substantial and and the state should decrease mandatory unemployment insurance rates.
The state decreased the rates last year, to 2.4 percent of a monthly salary (1.6 percent payed by the employee, and 0.8 percent by the employer), but said it will not change it in the next four years.
The supervisory board of Töötukassa said the rates should be 1.4 percent and 0.7 percent respectively from 2017. “With representatives of employees, we found that building up reserves should continue at a slower pace. Töötukassa's reserves are considerable enough and there is no justification in increasing them at such a rate, by 40 million euros each year,” Toomas Tamsar, head of the supervisory board, said.
According to estimates, the employment office's reserves should hit 600 million euros by the end of 2016.
Editor: J.M. Laats