The number of registered unemployed people in Estonia was 31,487 in the third quarter of 2019, defined as July, August and September. This is up 4.8 percent of the total number of the workforce from the age 16 to retirement age.

In the third quarter of last year, registered unemployed persons made up 4.5 percent of the total number of workforce, the Unemployment Insurance Fund said.

The number of those who had registered as unemployed, whose work ability has not decreased, increased most. In the third quarter, the rate of registered unemployment was highest in Ida-Viru County with 9 percent and lowest in Hiiumaa with 2.7 percent.

In the third quarter, the amount of people whose last employment ended due to the conclusion of a service provision agreement was slightly higher among newly unemployed persons than in the same period the year before.

The share of those who left work due to lay-offs is also slightly higher among the newly unemployed of this year's third quarter than those of the same period last year.

The number of newly unemployed persons registered in the third quarter was approximately 17,800, which is eight percent more than the year before.

With the help of the Unemployment Insurance Fund, approximately 11,800 people started work or entrepreneurship in the third quarter, including some 2,500 people with reduced capacity for work. The number of people who started work was four percent lower than in the third quarter of the previous year.

In the third quarter, the Unemployment Insurance Fund mediated an average of over 4,600 vacancies every day.  The highest number of vacancies on offer by the Unemployment Insurance Fund in the third quarter were for service and sales workers and unskilled workers.

The greatest decline compared with the third quarter of last year was seen in vacancies on offer for equipment and machinery operators, compilers and unskilled workers. 

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