The personnel director of the Selver supermarket chain, Kristina Palm, told ERR radio that they are having trouble finding candidates who fit the bill. "The need for employees is certainly greater than it was last year," said Palm, adding that the skillsets for a good cashier are surprisingly complex for a position that might seem basic to some.

The study released by the Employers' Confederation showed that besides personal traits and attitude, language proficiency was a sticking point.

"There are people available for customer service and sales, but usually the desire is to have people with Estonian skills at the required level as well as Russian and some other language," said Kadri Seeder, coordinator of the survey. "Often people who are unemployed do not have a very great learning ability and they lack language proficiency, in the best case they can write Estonian without making mistakes."

The Unemployment Insurance Fund's services department deputy head Kerstin Holland also stressed the language problem. "We do try to support it by carrying out specialty training in combination with language training where necessary," she said.

Seeder said that outreach should be directed at those who are bound by caregiver duties or who live in outlying areas and "for some reason have decided they are not participating on the labor market." According to her, the state and employers have a responsibility to make sure that working hours were suitable employees. Currently the trend is that stores stay open longer into the evening than, for instance, nursery schools, Seeder said. 

Kristopher Rikken