OREANDA-NEWS. February 25, 2014. Data from Statistics Estonia show that the number of employed rose in the last quarter of 2013 by 0.1%, while Eesti Pank estimates show that it fell by 1% over the quarter in seasonally adjusted terms.

The data released today are adjusted for the results of the most recent population census and for migration, with the result that the employment figures for the first three quarters of 2013  were revised down by 2.1% and the regional distribution of employment was changed. The revisions did not lead to any major changes in the unemployment rate or in the estimate of the participation rate.

The initial estimates of economic growth by Statistics Estonia show that the productivity of labour was around the same as in the fourth quarter of the previous year. At the same time wage growth continued at a relatively fast rate according to preliminary data. This means there is increasingly less benefit in maintaining jobs with low productivity. For an increase in structural unemployment to be avoided, it is important for those people who lose their jobs to be able to retrain and add to their skills so that they will be competitive in the labour market.