Analytics, Employment, Latvia

The agency explains that the unemployment rate represents the proportion of unemployed residents, registered with the Employment Agency, in the total number of economically active residents. The Employment Agency receives data on the number of economically active residents in the country from the Central Statistical Bureau once a year, in April.

Based on the Central Statistical Bureau's data, the results of the 2011 population census have brought the number of economically active residents in Latvia down by 12.7%, therefore the unemployment rate, given the smaller number of economically active residents, increased – although the number of unemployed residents has been reducing the past two months.

Therefore, taking into account the latest Central Statistical Bureau's data, the registered unemployment rate in Latvia was 12.9% at the end of April.

If the unemployment rate was calculated according to the data that were used before April, it would have been 11.3 percent, or 0.4 percentage points less than in March. The overall employment situation is improving in the country, as attested by the reducing number of unemployed persons, the fact that there are more vacancies and increasingly more unemployed are finding a job, notes the Employment Agency.

At the beginning of April, 132,158 people had the status of an unemployed person registered with the Employment Agency, the number reduced to 127,783 by the end of April.

The lowest unemployment rate last month was registered in Riga Region – 9%, while the highest unemployment rate was recorded in Latgale province – 24.1%. Unemployment in Kurzeme stood at 13.9% in April, in Zemgale at 14.4% and in Vidzeme at 15.1%.

Among the cities, Riga had the lowest unemployment rate of 8.5%, followed by Jelgava –9.7%, Ventspils – 10.8%, Valmiera – 10.6%, Daugavpils – 12.3%, Jurmala – 14.3%, Liepaja – 12.7%, Jekabpils – 18.4%, Rezekne – 23.4%.