Estonian cbank: Economic cooldown yet to affect employment

TALLINN - The labor market situation remained good in the second quarter of 2022, in the assessment of the Bank of Estonia, as the share of the employed was 4.9 percent higher than at the same time the year before.

Data on salary declarations by the Tax and Customs Board, too, showed that the number of people receiving a declared salary had grown some 4 percent, economist at the Estonian central bank Orsolya Soosaar said in a press release.

The number of permanent residents of Estonia who are active in the labor market has notably increased this year, particularly due to young and retirement-aged people. In addition to permanent residents, labor supply was also boosted by Ukrainian war refugees entering the Estonian labor market; however, they will not be reflected in labor data studies this year, the economist said.

Soosaar pointed out that pursuant to register data, on average 3,300 Ukrainian war refugees worked in Estonian businesses in the second quarter while close to 4,000 of them were job hunting through the Unemployment Insurance Fund.

"Employment was found most frequently in manufacturing, administration and support activities, commerce, and in accommodation and catering," she added.

"Even though the economic situation cooling has yet to have an impact on employment, a survey by the Institute of Economic Research revealed that employers in the industrial and commercial sector have become more pessimistic in recent month about the employment rate growing. Setbacks in this regard will be mitigated by labor productivity having increased must faster than labor costs during the period of recovery from the coronavirus crisis," Soosaar said.