Almost 3,000 more unemployed since start of year
Since January, the number of registered unemployed has risen by almost 3,000 people. There are currently over 56,100 registered unemployed people in Estonia and 7 percent of these are Ukrainian refugees.
The unemployment rate is 8.1 percent.
"Overall, there was no very good or very bad news to report at the start of the year. As always in the first months of the year, registered unemployment has risen in January and early February," said Annika Koppel, head of communications at the Unemployment Insurance Fund.
There are slightly fewer unemployed people in Estonia than at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic when more than 57,000 people were registered with the unemployment fund. However, at that time, there were few refugees.
All sectors are seeing rising unemployment.
"There has been a lot of talk about manufacturing. There have indeed been a lot of redundancies in this sector over the last year, but it's also the biggest sector - there have always been a lot of people, a lot of job offers, and also a lot of people leaving the labor market," said Koppel.
The highest number of unemployed people is in Ida-Viru County (14 percent) and Valga County (10 percent), which is a long-term trend.
"It has been like this for years. Unemployment is lower on the islands and in Viljandi County. There are no big changes here either. During the corona period, Saaremaa had a shock when tourism closed down, but today it is back to its usual level," Koppel said.
Big problems can arise when large employers make layoffs.
"This was the case in Lääne-Viru County last year, for example, when the E-betoonelement factory closed in Tamsalu. But more than half of those made redundant there have now, fortunately, found new jobs. However, there is also a good example from the same county. Näpi sawmill, where production stopped last year, has found a new owner and is being put back into operation.," Koppel said.
The number of collective redundancies also rose in January. "A total of 16 notices of collective redundancies and 447 jobs. The first is still the processing industry - eight notices. The biggest notices are Tartu Prison and Omniva," she said.
Last year, there were seven notices of collective redundancies and 526 jobs were laid off. This was significantly affected by the large-scale layoffs of Express Post, where 450 people lost their jobs. A year earlier, in January 2022, 83 jobs were laid off.
The unemployment fund predicts the number of redundancies should peak in March and then start to decline.
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Editor: Helen Wright
