Job vacancies fell by 27% YoY in the third quarter of 2020, state agency Statistics Estonia said.
There were 8,689 job vacancies in Q3, with education (1,501), manufacturing (1,202) and retail (1,158) making up the largest sectors.
Occupied and vacant posts combined came to 607,125, the agency added, making the vacancy rate 1.4%. Over 40% of these vacancies were in the public sector.
Argo Tarkiainen, analyst at Statistics Estonia, said: “The rate of job vacancies was the highest in education and the lowest in agriculture and in mining and quarrying.”
By region, Harju County had the lion’s share of job vacancies, 78% of the total (with two thirds of the total being in Tallinn itself). Tartu County held 6.1% of vacancies, while Ida-Viru County – 4.6%. The three counties together account for about two thirds of the Estonian population.
As a proportion of the total, the job vacancy rate was highest in Harju and Valga counties and lowest in Polva County.
57,463 people were hired in Q3; 59,924 people left over the same period.
Labor turnover (the sum of those employed plus those who left employment) fell by 1%.
“Both the number of new hires and the number of employees who left work were largest in wholesale and retail trade, manufacturing, and education. 8,368 employees left their job at the employer’s initiative, which represented 14% of all the employees who left work,” Argo Tarkiainen continued. (ERR/Business World Magazine)
