Analytics, Employment, EU – Baltic States, Latvia

"It is still too early to speak of a significant reduction in the unemployment rate, which is still very high. At the moment, we can speak about a stabilization of the situation. Businessmen, local governments and state institutions carried out their redundancy measures in 2009, and at the moment equilibrium has been reached in terms of job numbers," said Pasevica.

The highest unemployment rate is still in Latgale Province, where it is currently 22.8%, while the lowest rate was registered in the city of Riga, where it was 12.2%.

Pasevica indicated that one of the reasons for the reduction in the unemployment rate was the availability of seasonal work. At the start of this week, 2,593 vacancies were registered with SEA branches.

As reported, the average seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in Latvia in April was 22.5%, as Latvia registered the highest unemployment rate in the European Union (EU) for the eighth month in a row, according to the latest data from the EU statistical office Eurostat.

Up until last September, unemployment in Latvia was the second highest in the EU, second only to Spain, while in 2007 and the first half of 2008, it was among the lowest in the EU, and lower than the average for the EU as a whole.

The next highest unemployment rates in April were registered in Spain (19.7%), Slovakia (14.1%), Ireland (13.2%), and Portugal (10.8%).

The lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Netherlands (4.1%), Austria (4.9%), Luxembourg (5.4%), and Slovenia (6.3%).

The average seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in the 27 European Union (EU) member states was 9.7% in April, the same as in March. The unemployment rate in the eurozone was 10.1% in April, compared to 10% in March.

In comparison, in April of 2009, the unemployment rate in the 27 EU member states was 8.7%, and 9.2% in the eurozone.

The unemployment rate over the last year has risen in all EU member states, except one, but the greatest rises were in Estonia (from 11 to 19%), Latvia (from 15.4 to 22.5%), and Lithuania (from 11.2 to 17.4%).

The lowest rises in unemployment over the year were recorded in Luxembourg (from 5.3 to 5.4%) and Malta (from 6.9 to 7%).