Number of unemployed persons in Estonia fell for the second year in a row

The number of unemployed persons and the unemployment rate both fell last year, for the second year running. In 2022, there were 40,200 unemployed persons, which is 2,900 fewer than the year before. The unemployment rate was 5.6%, down from 6.2% in 2021.

Tea Vassiljeva, analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that the biggest decrease in the unemployment rate in 2022 was recorded in Tartu and Pärnu counties. “Unemployment also declined in Ida-Viru county, but there was a rise in the unemployment rate in Harju county excluding Tallinn city, and in Lääne-Viru county. In Tallinn, both the number of unemployed persons and the unemployment rate remained at the same level as the year before,” said Vassiljeva.

In 2022, the number of employed persons grew substantially. “Their number was still in decline in 2021 but started to increase in 2022. The number of women among employed persons increased more than the number of men,” noted Vassiljeva.

In 2021, there were 650,500 employed persons aged 15–74 in Estonia, including 329,500 men and 321,000 women. In 2022, the number of employed persons rose by 26,900 and totalled 677,400 (341,700 men and 335,700 women). This is the biggest number in recent years. A similar growth year on year was recorded in the employment rate, which increased by 2.5 percentage points from 66.7% in 2021 to 69.2% in 2022.

Vassiljeva suggested that the increase can mostly be attributed to inactive persons. “In 2022, there were 260,800 inactive persons, which is 21,500 fewer than the year before. A considerable share of them have probably found employment since 2021, which is why the labour force participation rate has increased by 2.2 percentage points compared with 2021 – it was 73.3% last year,” said Vassiljeva.

In 2022, the number of employed persons working full-time and the number of those working part-time both increased. There was a bigger growth in the number of persons working part-time – it grew by 14,500 compared with 2021, totalling 102,000. The number of employed persons working full-time increased by 12,400 year on year and totalled 575,200 in 2022.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, the labour force participation rate was 73.5%, and the employment rate was 69.6%. The unemployment rate, which had dropped to the lowest level of recent years (5.2%) in the fourth quarter of 2021, was a little higher in the fourth quarter of 2022 at 5.4%.