Poll reveals conflicting signals

  • 2009-10-22
  • From wire reports
TALLINN - Job search portal CV Keskus in a recent poll reported that 60 percent of respondents would agree to work for 12,500 kroons (800 euros) or less a month, reports news agency LETA. The number willing to work for a monthly wage of less than 10,000 kroons was 37 percent. Around 12 percent demand a monthly wage of over 20,000 kroons.
"W
e held such a poll in June this year, too. The result this time is a bit surprising, since wage expectations have increased, rather than decreased," said CV Keskus managing director Paavo Heil. The survey polled 4,190; 27 percent were jobless, 7 percent students and 66 percent employed.
Social and market research company Saar Poll manager Andrus Saar said that 22 percent of the Estonian population wants to leave the country to live abroad, and that this number is bigger now than it was a year ago.

Unemployment is listed as the biggest problem, say 64 percent of respondents; 57 percent say that the economic situation is the problem. Almost 44 percent of those surveyed believe that things are going in the wrong direction in Estonia, while 30 percent say the economy is headed in the right direction.
More stress is on the way, as the Estonian Employers Confederation (EEC) estimates that Estonia's economy will drop by 15 percent this year, and that in order to be able to adopt the euro, costs would have to be cut by 2 billion kroons this year.

"This increases the risk that Estonia cannot fulfill the Maastricht criteria necessary to adopt the euro and that joining the euro area will be postponed to the indeterminate future," said EEC. The Confederation estimates that in addition to dividends withdrawn from companies, state expenditures would have to be cut by another 2 billion kroons to comply with the Maastricht budgetary criterion.
The EEC says that the trump cards Estonia had to attract foreign investments, bringing with them jobs, have disappeared and the state needs a new strategy to move forward and achieve new economic growth. Employers recommend structural reforms, mainly on education and workforce reforms.