Working Life Barometer in the Baltic Countries 2002 (pdf) - mol.fi

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2001 the unemployment rate of the labour force having a higher education
was 6% and with primary education 22% in Estonia. In this respect Estonia
does not differ from the rest of the world.
Another typical feature is that unemployment among the young is about twice
as high as the average. The unemployment rate among the 15–24-year-olds
was 12% in 1994, 16% in 1998 and 22% in 2001 (26% among women). In
many cases young persons are not hired because of lack of skills or
insufficient command of the Estonian language. Often young persons become
unemployed right at entering the labour market since potential employees are
not satisfied with their skill or there is no demand for a given speciality or the
expectations of the job seekers are too high. At the same time, however, the
proportion of employees 30 years old or younger is very high in such highly
paid fields of activity as financial mediation and real estate.
Long-term unemployment has been constantly increasing in Estonia. When in
1994 persons out of job for a long period made up 40%, then in 1998 already
47% and in 2001 48% of all the unemployed. Long-term unemployment is an
especially serious problem in rural areas. It is a more serious problem among
men than among women: in 2001 long-term unemployed men made up 52% of
all unemployed men, the relevant proportion of women was 44%. In parallel
with increasing long-term unemployment also the number of persons who
have given up searching for a job “due to having lost any hope of finding a
job”, i.e. of the so-called discouraged persons has increased. While the number
of discouraged persons was 15.3 thousand in 1997 and 18.9 thousand in 1999
then in 2001 already 22.4 thousand. High long-term unemployment and
hopelessness are becoming the most serious social problems on the Estonian
labour market.
There is an about 2-fold regional difference in unemployment rates in Estonia.
For years unemployment has been the highest in Northeast and Southeast
Estonia where the unemployment rate is up to 20%. In recent years Central
Estonia has had also a relatively high unemployment rate – 14–17%.
Unemployment is the lowest on West Estonian islands where it is below 10%.
With certain allowances we can say that the farther we move from the sea the
higher the unemployment rate. In peripheral areas the problem of
unemployment has been constant. Very few new jobs are created in the areas