RIGA - A recent poll by the personnel management company Working Day reveals that 25 percent of workers would agree to substantially lower their salaries in order to keep their job, reports news agency LETA.
To the question posed, "Would you agree to receive 30 percent of your salary only to make your employer keep you employed?" results showed that 75 percent of the respondents would say 'no,' that they would not agree to such a large decrease in their salaries and would rather leave their jobs. About 25 percent agreed with the offer.
Working Day Latvia marketing director Maris Silinieks said that the results show the fear among people about the increasing unemployment rate. "People realize that it will become much harder to find a job. The fear of sustained unemployment often compels people to accept provisions determined by the employer to provide significant salary reductions," he said.
Due to the decline in business activity, "Entrepreneurs continue to cut their costs, not only by lowering salaries, but also by dismissing less-productive workers," commented Silinieks.
There are 43,400 persons in Latvia who have lost any hope of finding a job, according to the Central Statistical Bureau's labor force survey in the second quarter of 2009. In the second quarter last year, the figure was a little more than half this figure - 26,000 people.
Compared to last year, the economically active population in Latvia for the second quarter of 2009 dropped by 1.6 percent. In total, 999,300 persons, or 55.9 percent of the total population aged 15-74, were employed. Women make up a slightly higher proportion than men in the working population, 51.6 percent versus 48.4 percent.
Survey results show that in the second quarter of 2009, there were 199,700 unemployed in Latvia, or 16.7 percent of the active population. This compares with 76,500 unemployed, at a proportion of 6.3 percent for last year.
The Working Day poll was carried out on the company's Web site, with 1,027 people responding to the questionnaire.
