Analytics, Employment, Labour-market, Latvia, Markets and Companies

One of the challenges will be the "trap" of average income, as Latvia can lose its competitiveness in low cost segments faster than acquire advantages in producing higher value added products. Another challenge will be the decline of the population, and aging of the labor force. The third challenge – disproportion in the labor market, namely, a gap between the skill demand and supply.

"Labor market forecasts still indicate that the large number of social science students will not have opportunities to acquire a job that would suit their profession. The state still faces an overproduction of lawyers, psychologists, economists, and other social science specialists, which means that finding a job in these fields will become more difficult," Economy Minister Vjaceslavs Dombrovskis said.

Dombrovskis believes that "occupation and profession are values which have been neglected by the society for the past couple of years."

He urges the Education and Science Ministry to carefully analyze the Economy Ministry's forecasts in planning state-funded tuition for universities and following strategic specialization principles. It is also important to keep improving the prestige and quality of education institutions in Latvia, the minister says.