Of the 33,268 registered unemployed, 10,233 people, or 19.2 percent more than in March 2017, were persons with limited capacity for work. The share of persons with limited capacity for work among unemployed persons rose 4.3 percent on year to 30.8 percent, it appears from the statistics of the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund (EUIF).

The rate of registered unemployment remained the highest in Ida-Viru County at 10.1 percent and lowest in Harju County at 3.7 percent. Unskilled workers made up the biggest part of the registered jobless who had previously worked, accounting for 22 percent of the total, ahead of skilled workers and craftsmen at 19 percent and service and sales personnel at 17 percent.

Altogether 33,398 people on average had registered as unemployed in the first quarter of 2018. Compared to the first quarter of 2017, the number of registered unemployed has increased by five percent, due to an increase in the number of persons with reduced capacity for work. The number of those registered unemployed whose capacity for work has not decreased, meanwhile, was four percent lower than the year before. The registered unemployment rate in the first quarter amounted to 5.1 percent, which is 0.2 percent higher than the year before and 0.4 percent higher than in the previous quarter.

According to Margit Paulus, head of the EUIF's analysis department, with the fourth quarter of last year, the number of registered unemployed in the first quarter increased 10 percent, which is slightly less than in previous years, when the growth in the number of registered unemployed in the first quarter was 14-15 percent compared to the previous quarter.

During the month of March 4,753 new offers were added to the job offers available via the EUIF, 69 percent of which were added through the e-EUIF, which was 28 percent more than in February and 16 percent less than at the same time last year. The EUIF had a total of 8,983 jobs on offer during the month. The biggest part of jobs on offer were for service and sales personnel with 23 percent, unskilled workers with 20 percent and skilled workers and craftsmen with 18 percent of all jobs.

During the first quarter of 2018, altogether 12,811 new offers were added to the job offers available via the EUIF, which is 11 percent less than in the first quarter of 2017. Compared to the previous quarter, there were five percent more new job offers added in the first quarter. During the month of March, 3,211 people, including 640 persons with limited capacity for work, found employment or started business with the help of the EUIF.