As of 1 January 2022, the population of Estonia is 1,328,439 people. Estonia is characterised by the simplicity and speed of its administrative management. There are many e-services in practice that support entry into the labour market.
In the first quarter of 2021, 650,500 people were employed and the employment rate was 66.7%. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the unemployment rate was 5.2% and the activity rate 71.1%.
Labour needs in Estonia are forecast by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. The number of senior and mid-level specialists is growing while the share of those groups of professions for which fewer professional skills are sufficient is decreasing. The need for a new labour force is mainly shaped by the number of employees leaving the labour market that need to be replaced by newcomers, except some youth sectors, such as information and communication technology (ICT). OSKA sector-specific studies highlight a growing need for ICT specialists, technicians and mechatronics specialists, engineers of different technical fields, forestry machine operators, nurses, care providers, physiotherapists, psychologists, business and data analysts, but also industrial and service designers. More new labour force is also required in job-rich profession groups with higher need for replacing workers, such as the professions of motor vehicle drivers, teachers (especially STEM teachers), childcare organisation support specialists, nurses, care workers and highly skilled construction workers. The fields studied to date have revealed that there are too few graduates in specialities such as system analyst, software developer, engineers of different fields, but also speech therapist. Of highly skilled workers, there is a lack of trained plumbers, carpenters, mechatronics specialists and machine operators, but also wood treaters and harvester drivers.
A more thorough overview of the labour market situation, its future trends and training needs is available in the OSKA (monitoring and prognosis system for labour force needs) general report ‘Estonian Labour Market Today and Tomorrow’.
Links:
Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund | |
Statistics Estonia | |
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OSKA report | |
Forecast of supply and demand in the national labour force until 2025, by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications | https://www.mkm.ee/sites/default/files/toojouprognoos_2025_lyhikirjeldus_uus.pdf |
According to the evaluation carried out in October 2021, the demand for labour is expected to rise over the next year in the following professions:
- Audiologists and speech therapists
- Highly skilled construction workers
- Care providers in health-care settings
- Engineers
- Medical staff
- Mechatronics specialists
- Carpenters
- Application programmers
- System analysts
- Software developers
- Web and multimedia developers
- Lorry drivers
- Teachers
Job vacancies can be found on the Work in Estonia website https://www.workinestonia.com/
According to the October 2021 evaluation, the next year will see a significant labour surplus for the following occupations:
- Journalists
- Data entry clerks
- Accounting officers
- Managers in financial intermediation and insurance services
- Senior officials
- Designers and multimedia artists
- Middle-management specialists in accounting
- Clerical and secretarial staff