Employment situation worsens

  • 2009-09-02
  • TBT Staff

Last week, 5,600 Lithuanians registered as jobseekers

RIGA/VILNIUS- The employment situation in the Baltics continues its slump as Lithuania announced that over 217,000 work aged people our currently jobless. Latvia is fairing no better as survey results from "Fontes Vadibas Konsultacijas" report that the 68 percent of working person's annual salary has been reduced. Over 67 percent of the private sector has let staff go in Latvia, especially among junior level employees, which had shown significant growth in past years.

The total annual pay has remained as before for three percent of employees in Latvia, whilst for 29 percent it has increased over the past twelve months. Most often a pay rise has been allotted to employees whose range of responsibilities extends to assignments on the Baltic or international level.

During the last week of August, the Lithuanian territorial labor exchanges registered 5,600 jobseekers. This indicator dropped for the ninth week in a row. In the first weeks of June over 7,000 jobseekers were registered per week and there were around 6,200-6,600 jobseekers registered per week in July.