In the first quarter of 2025, 64,200 unemployed people were registered in Estonia, the highest number in 12 years. According to official statistics, the country’s unemployment rate rose to 8.6%, indicating a serious deterioration in the labour market. For comparison, in the first quarter of 2024, this figure was 7.8%, and in the last quarter of the same year, it was 7.4%.

Of greatest concern is the rapid increase in the number of people who remain unemployed for a long time. In the first quarter of this year, more than 16,000 Estonians were unemployed for more than 12 months, which is 3,200 more than a year earlier. This indicates that the labour market is losing its ability to quickly integrate the unemployed into work.

In addition, the number of people who have been looking for work for less than half a year was 38,100, up 1,700 from the first quarter of 2024 and 4,800 from the previous quarter. This underlines the general trend of increasing unemployment regardless of the duration of their unemployment.

Men were more affected by unemployment: the unemployment rate among them was 9%, while among women it was 8.2%. This gender gap points to structural imbalances in the labor market, which may be related to differences in the employment sectors dominated by certain groups.

The total number of employed people in Estonia decreased by 11,700 people over the year and now stands at 681,600. The only sector that recorded employment growth was the service sector, which employs 73.8% of all workers in the country. Other sectors, such as industry and construction, are showing declines.

The decline in the economically active population has also had an impact on the overall situation: Estonia’s working-age population fell by 1,900 over the year. This points to deeper demographic and structural problems that are making it difficult to stabilize the country’s labor market.