Analytics, Education and Science, Employment, EU – Baltic States, Latvia

According to Eurostat, last year 17.3% of Latvian youth, aged 15-24, were without jobs.

The Latvian State Employment Agency also said that the situation is improving, and , according to the agency’s data, the share of young people among all unemployed people has declined from 9.5% to 6.8%. The situation has improved also in other age groups, and the number of registered jobless people has dropped by almost one third in the past four years.

Economics expert Peteris Strautins said that there are no doubts that the situation in the job market has improved. "The number occupied workplaces has risen by 126,000 from 2010 until the second quarter of 2017, which means that creation of new workplaces has been the main factor promoting drop of unemployment," said Strautins.

Laimo Mirzojeva, the head of the EU funds project Youth Guarantee, said that one of the biggest challenges has been to integrate youth without education or earlier work experience in the job market.

NVA reported that from the start of the Youth Guarantee program until this August, 218,653 jobless people, aged 15-29, participated in different program events.

For example, more than half or 56% of the participants joined different training programs, learning new professions or improving their existing professional knowledge and skills, 31% of participants got their first job experience, 290 people used the opportunity to develop their business plans, and authors of 88 best business plans received financial support for start of the business.

The EU funds project Youth Guarantee has been implemented in cooperation with educational institutions, local governments, social services, youth organizations and employers.