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Gaspuitis said that unemployment level will keep dropping in the coming two or three years.

At the same time, the situation in Latvia still is a bit worse than in Lithuania and Estonia, where unemployment has already declined to 7%. "Latvia may reach this unemployment level in 2019," said Gaspuitis.

He said that if the economic growth is balances, in the coming two or three years there will be demand for working in practically all industries, making a competition and pressure on wages.

"The average unemployment level will remain comparatively high. The number of vacancies will grow, while unemployment will still be high, especially in regions. People will still keep leaving the country, especially young people, but the labor market continue aging, narrowing the choice of employers. This will make a pressure on wages and inflation," said Gaspuitis.

As reported, in the second quarter of this year, 86,600 people or 8.9% of Latvia’s economically active population were jobless, shows the latest labor force survey released today by the Central Statistics Bureau (CSB).

In the second quarter of 2017, Latvia’s unemployment rate dropped by 0.6 percentage points from the same period last year and by 0.5%age points from the first quarter of this year.

The number of jobless people decreased by 7,900 against the second quarter of 2016 and by 4,700 against the first quarter of this year.