Increased exports help unemployment numbers

RIGA - The current growth in economic activity will lead to a gradual fall in the unemployment rate in coming months, says economist Krista Kalnberzina on the Latvian central bank’s homepage, reports Nozare.lv. The registered unemployment rate fell in May for the second consecutive month, reaching 16.2 percent, which is 0.5 percentage points less than in April. After peaking in March, the number of unemployed has shrunk by 10,800 people.

As Kalnberzina explains, the reduction in the jobless rate was primarily determined by a rapid drop in the number of newly registered unemployed. At the same time, economic indicators increasingly point to the recovery of the economy; the situation is gradually improving in the industrial and trade sectors, with export indicators growing particularly rapidly. This is reflected both in a smaller number of newly registered unemployed and in the increase, for a third consecutive month, in job vacancies.

The unemployment rate was also brought down by the number of people who have lost their unemployed status. Following a rapid rise in March and April, the number of people who have lost their unemployed status and found permanent employment has dropped slightly.

ccording to Kalnberzina, maintaining unemployed status after unemployment benefits have run out could be aided by allotting additional financing for practical work in local governments for a 100 lats (142.80 euros) stipend. This year a total of 48,200 unemployed are expected to be involved in the program.
At the beginning of June, 183,578 people were out of work in Latvia, which is 16.2 percent of the country’s economically-active population, says State Employment Agency (SEA) Director Baiba Pasevica. “It is still too early to speak of a significant reduction in the unemployment rate, which is still very high. At the moment, we can speak about a stabilization of the situation.

The highest unemployment rate is still in the Latgale region, where it is currently 22.8 percent, while the lowest rate was registered in Riga, where it was 12.2 percent.
Pasevica indicated that one of the reasons for the reduction in the unemployment rate was the availability of seasonal work.