The number of job offers in Estonia is a bit higher today than in 2019-2020, but still far from last year’s all-time high, Lauri Kool, spokesman for the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund, said on Monday.
In August, about 5,000 vacancies were added to the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s job offer database, which is fewer than in the month of August in the last two years, but more than in 2019 and 2020.
“The last time we saw a sharp drop in the number of vacancies was at the beginning of COVID, when job offers were put on hold abruptly. Last year, employers had high hopes for a rapid recovery in the economy and hiring gained momentum, with a record number of job offers added to the job vacancy portal of the Unemployment Insurance Fund during the year. There is no point in comparing this year with last year — this year is quite far from the absolute record,” Kool told BNS.
The spokesman noted that early September is always a strange time in unemployment, as people go to school or start work in a new place, and unemployment seems to be falling for a couple of weeks as a result. This was the case also in early September of this year, but it’s just a September-specific phenomenon, he added.
Kool pointed out that there are some 49,050 people registered as unemployed in Estonia now, compared with 50,000 at the end of August. A record number of people terminated their jobless status with the Unemployment Insurance Fund in the first week of September.
Once the so-called September effect has passed, unemployment will start to rise again. In all previous years more people have been registered as unemployed in October, November and December than the number of those who find a job in the respective month. Thus, the highest jobless number for 2023 is probably still ahead, he added.
The peak of recent years dates back to the time of the coronavirus, when in March 2021 there were 7,000 more people registered as unemployed than today. Estonia’s absolute record dates from the crisis of 2008-2010, when nearly 100,000 people were without a job at one point.
Source: BNS.
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