Analytics, Employment, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Labour-market

Domestic employment rate grew by 2.2% in the year-on-year comparison, by 0.6 percentage points slower than the total employment rate.

According to the central bank, the number of Estonian workers commuting to work abroad is rather high in comparison with the number of those who have definitively emigrated during the past ten years. It is likely that the geographic proximity of Finland and Sweden and the favourable price of ship transport in comparison with air transport has slowed down permanent emigration as has taken place in Lithuania.

According to calculations by the Bank of Estonia, the number of residents of working age last year fell by an estimated 7,390 due to death rate and changes in the population structure and by nearly 5,300 due to emigration. Hence the total population of working age decreased by nearly 12,700 persons.

The bank estimates that longer-term population outlook is made more pessimistic by the fact that youth emigration has been faster than estimated during the past decade.

In the third quarter of 2012, the employment rate grew by 1.2% and in the fourth quarter by 1.7%. During the entire year, the employment rate grew by 2.8%. The central bank stated that post-crisis recovery is, as expected, thus over and the increase in the employment rate will continue in a much slower pace.