Off the wire
• Czech nominates David Cup squad  • Rocket attack on gendarmerie post in western Turkey, no casualties  • Lithuania seeking European support to buy out LNG terminal's vessel  • Confucius classroom hub launched in northernmost part of Britain  • 15 migrants relocated in Malta  • Slovak PM defends constitutional ban on water exports  • Foreign military operation in Libya would set region on fire: Algerian analysts  • Gunmen rob grocery store in S. Finland, no casualty reported  • Yemeni president appoints vice commander to retake rebel-held capital  • One in five children in Africa not receive life-saving immunizations: WHO  
You are here: 　 Home

Latvian unemployment decreases at slower pace in 2015

Xinhua, February 24, 2016 Adjust font size:

Although unemployment continued to decline in Latvia in 2015, the drop was slower in comparison with previous years, official figures showed Tuesday.

Representatives of the Finance Ministry noted that improvements to the labor market became less pronounced last year.

"Although the unemployment rate decreased by 0.9 percentage points in the full year, during the last quarter unemployment declined 0.4 percentage points year-on-year to 9.8 percent of the economically active population," the ministry said.

As joblessness continued to decrease, Latvians' economic activity picked up in 2015. The share of the population involved in the labor market either as employees or jobseekers grew from 66.3 percent in 2014 to 67.5 percent last year, according to the data released on Tuesday.

The Economics Ministry predicted the situation in the Latvian labor market will continue to improve also this year, but at a slower rate than before.

Economics Ministry representative Edmunds Gergelevics said that this year the number of employed people is likely to increase by 0.9 percent from 2015. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate might drop to about 8.7 percent in 2016.

Although their number decreased by 1,600 to some 44,500 people, the share of the long-term unemployed in the jobs-seeking population expanded last year, from 43 percent in 2014 to 45.5 in 2015.

Youth unemployment in Latvia was down 3.3 percentage points to 16.3 percent in 2015, with young people, aged 15 to 24, making up 13.8 percent of total number of Latvia's jobless last year. Endit