Unemployment in the Baltic States was highest in Lithuania in May 2024, according to Eurostat data, LETA reports. The unemployment rate stood at 7.7% in Lithuania, 7.4% in Estonia, and 6.7% in Latvia. The EU average was 6%.
Estonia’s real GDP will continue to decline by 0.3% in 2024 but will increase by 2.8% in 2025, according to Swedbank’s latest macroeconomic forecast, ERR reports. The bank expects the current recession in Estonia to end in the middle of 2024. Moderate growth will return in 2025, driven by stronger domestic demand and exports. Annual…
The number of unemployed people in Latvia totalled 63,100 at the end of 2023, which was 700 more than in the same period of 2022, according to the Central Statistical Bureau’s (CSP) estimate, LSM reports. The country’s actual unemployment rate stood at 6.6%, which was unchanged from a year earlier. The number of unemployed men…
The number of new layoffs in Estonia totalled 3,500 in 2023, which was 22% more than in 2022, according to data from the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund (Töötukassa), ERR reports. Around a third of those laid off were formerly employed in the manufacturing and another third in transport and storage. The biggest number of layoffs…
Latvia’s registered unemployment level stood at 5.7% of the economically active population at the end of 2023, which was down from 6.1% at the end of 2022, according to data from the State Employment Agency (NVA), LETA reported. The number of registered unemployed totalled 50,344 at the end of 2023, which was down from 53,536…
Latvian businesses urge the government to ease the rules on the entry of foreign labour into the country, LSM reports. Speaking at a conference on human capital development in the Latvian parliament, the Saeima, business representatives and market analysts noted that Latvia’s human resources were exhausted. They called for improving labour availability through relaxed rules…
Estonia’s central bank, the Bank of Estonia, foresees growing unemployment in the near future, ERR reports. Orsolya Soosaar, economist at the Bank of Estonia, expects the country’s unemployment rate to reach double digits in 2024. In late September 2023, the central bank forecast that unemployment would rise to 8% in 2024. Soosaar said that the…
Estonia’s GDP will decline by 2.2% in 2023 and grow by 1.4% in 2024 and 4% in 2025, according to the Bank of Estonia’s latest forecast, ERR reports. In June 2023, the central bank projected a 1% drop in GDP in 2023 and a growth of 2.4% in 2024. Annual inflation will amount to 9.4%…
Lithuania’s GDP will decline by 1.4% in 2023 and grow by 2.9% in 2024, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts, BNS reports. The country’s GDP will continue to rise by 2.7% in 2025, by 2.5% in 2026, by 2.2% in 2027, and by 2.1% in 2028, the IMF projects. Annual inflation will slow down to…
