OREANDA-NEWS. February 17, 2014. The number of jobless workers stood at 8.7 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, according to Statistics Estonia.

The number of employed clocked in at 59,000 for the three-month period. The umployment rate stood at 10.0 percent in 2012.

Short-term unemployed, which are people that have been looking for a job for under a year, made up the majority of the statistic, numbering 33,000 as an annual average. That was an increase of 2,000 over 2012. Long-term unemployed experienced a large drop, numbering 26,000 in 2013, a 11,000-person descrease from the year before.

The youth unemployment rate (15-24 year-old workers) was 18.7 percent, a drop of 2.2 percent from 2012, but 2.5 times higher than the rest of the population. The youth unemployment numbered 11,000 in total.

Employment grew in 2013, Statistics Estonia said, due to a decrease in tbe number of both the unemployed and economically inactive (students, retirees, homemakers, etc.). They numbered 320,000 in 2013, which is 7,000 less than the previous year. They suggested this drop was caused by fewer students coming up through the Estonian educational system due to demographic forces, the gradual rise of the official retirement age, and a lengthing work life.

Statistics Estonia's estimates were based off the Labor Force Survey, which has been done quarterly by the organization since 1995, and includes a sample size of 5,000.