Analytics, Estonia, Financial Services, Markets and Companies, Wages

According to the latest survey, 70 percent of respondents do not plan to alter wages, 9 percent of respondents plan to restore the previous wage level and 5 percent plan to increase wages, the Salary Information Agency said. At the same time, 18 percent of the responding organizations stated that they had already reduced wages in recent months.

According to the survey, compared to April, employers have slightly clearer plans for wage changes -- while in April, 27 percent of respondents could not say whether wages in their organization would rise or fall in the coming months, then in June, 14 percent of respondents were uncertain.

"The companies that have lowered basic wages are mostly in the accommodation, catering and tourism sectors, as well as in the metal industry and in professional, scientific and technical activities, including, for example, accounting and advertising services," Kadri Seeder, head of the Salary Information Agency, said in a press release.

She added that in accommodation and catering, a large number of companies have also reduced their workload in recent months, and almost half of the industrial companies participating in the survey had also reduced their workload.

In organizations where wages have been reduced, this usually affects all employees, and the reduction in wages is more often in the range of 21-30 percent.

"The reduction in both wages and workload is affected in several areas by the wage compensation measure, a condition of which was a reduction in the workload and/or wages of employees. The measure definitely helped many companies survive, but it also motivated many to cut workloads or wages," Seeder said.

She added that there are more basic wage increases in health and social care institutions, where the wage increase is affected by a collective agreement concluded in 2018. "There are also more wage increases among companies in agriculture and also in the food industry, which are affected by seasonal work," Seeder said.

Henry Auvaart, marketing chief at CVKeskus.ee, said that almost half of the employers -- 43 percent of respondents -- see the possibility of hiring new employees in the coming months. "Most employers with recruitment plans need workers to replace workers who are temporarily absent, but 15 percent also plan to create new jobs," he said.

Auvaart noted that, compared to the previous survey, there were fewer employers planning to lay off workers in the coming months -- while in April, 13 percent of respondents planned to lay off workers in the coming months, then in June, 8 percent planned to lay off workers.

The Salary Information Agency, in cooperation with the job portal, first interviewed employers in April and a repeat survey was conducted in June. Altogether 698 representatives of organizations participated in the spring survey of employers and 589 employers participated in the repeat survey.

In addition to changes in basic salaries, employers' recruitment and redundancy plans, changes in turnover and profits and recovery forecasts, managers' decision-making values and the effects of teleworking were also examined.