Analytics, Estonia, Labour-market

Willingness to change jobs has increased compared to 2018, and the share of workers who are loyal to their current employer has gone down. While last year, around 30% of the respondents to a comparable survey were not interested in changing jobs, the respective share this year was 25%.

The survey also indicated that 35% of employees are keeping an eye out for potential job offers and 21% are planning to change jobs within the coming six months. 

Workers' readiness to change jobs is largely affected by employers' active recruitment efforts as a larger number of open competitions and calls for applications are being carried out. Based on the survey, 48% of the respondents have recently received invitations to submit their candidacy to a new position.

The number of invitations targeting managers and project managers was the highest with around 66 % of the respondents having received such an invitation. Employers' efforts were also most notable in the field of IT and telecommunication. 

Fewer invitations were sent to lower-income workers, among whom job offers often circulate by word of mouth. Broken down by regions, workers in Harju County and Tallinn received the highest numbers of invitations to put in for a new position.

"Interest in job offers has clearly grown on year and Estonian jobs portals saw some 12 mln visits in the first half of 2019," Henry Auvaart, marketing chief at CVKeskus.ee, said 

Interest remains greatest in lower-level office jobs, he said.

"For instance, offers for office assistant jobs saw on average 35 candidates for one position. Customer service, sales, transport, the industrial sector as well as the production sector also saw a large share of applications submitted, as the number of vacant positions is highest in these fields," Auvaart noted.

He added that on average, 50,000 employees are hired quarterly in Estonia.

"That means that nearly every fourth worker will change jobs in 2019," the marketing chief of CVKeskus.ee said.

Kadri Seeder, head of the Salary Information Agency, said that the price of employee loyalty has increased, too, year over year.

"While last year, workers who were actively looking to change jobs were earning an average gross income of 1,118 euros, this spring, however, it was higher by 14% at 1,275 euros," she said.

The workers who were not interested in changing jobs, on the other hand, had seen their average gross wages increase as much as by 17%, from 1,444 euros last year to 1,690 euros in the spring of 2019.