January registered unemployment at 5.2 percent
The number of registered unemployed in Estonia increased seven percent on month to 33,270 in January, accounting for 5.2 percent of the total workforce between the ages of 16 and the retirement age.
The number of persons with limited capacity for work was 10,037, making up 30 percent of all registered unemployed, the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund (EUIF) said.
Growth in the number of unemployed in January is not unusual, as year-end marks the end of many fixed-term labor contracts and the number of layoffs also increases at the end of the year.
"The number of registered unemployed increasing in January was also influenced by the administrative reform, as some of the people who lost their jobs as a result of reorganization in municipal, town or county governments registered as unemployed," said Margit Paulus, head of the EUIF's Analysis Department. Paulus noted that while the number increased seven percent compared to December 2017, it was still lower than in January 2017.
A total of €2.9 million in layoff benefits was paid to 1,444 people in January, more than half of whom were employees of city, municipal or county governments.
The rate of registered unemployment remained highest in Ida-Viru County at 9.8 percent and lowest in Harju County at 3.8 percent. Unskilled workers accounted for the largest part of the registered jobless who had previously worked at 23 percent of the total, ahead of skilled workers and craftsmen at 18 percent and service and sales personnel at 17 percent.
Last month, 4,333 new offers were added to the job offers available via the EUIF. The number of job offers added during the month was 58 percent higher compared to the previous month and four percent lower compared to January 2017.
The EUIF had a total of 7,578 jobs on offer last month. The biggest part of jobs on offer were for service and sales personnel with 20 percent, skilled workers and craftsmen with 20 percent, and equipment and machinery operators and assembly workers with 18 percent of all jobs.
Editor: Aili Vahtla
Source: BNS