Employment, Energy, Estonia, Labour-market, Markets and Companies

"Most likely much less people will become unemployed than are being laid off because companies notify of such plans early and thanks to that it is possible to start looking for a new job early on. There are also people in the retirement age among them -- if they do not find a new job, they will probably leave the workforce," economist of the central bank Orsolya Soosaar said.

Therefore major layoffs in the oil industry will not start raising the unemployment before the second quarter of 2016 since the time for notifying about a layoff is 1-3 months in advance.

Although according to Statistics Estonia in the fourth quarter of last year employment decreased and unemployment rate increased compared to the third quarter, other data sources show that the third quarter's employment and unemployment assessments were too optimistic, Soosaar said.

According to Soosaar it can be said based on an economic growth flash estimate that there is a shortage of labor on the labor market.

Last year the unemployment rate in Estonia was 6.2%, the employment rate 65.2% and the labor force participation rate 69.4%, Statistics Estonia said on Friday.