The wholes in Lithuania’s labour market are being filled not only by third-country nationals but also by workers from neighbouring countries. With unemployment in Latvia’s Latgale region at an all-time high, its residents are taking up jobs in Lithuania.
Aleksej Sokolov, who lives in Latvia’s Daugavpils, works at the furniture factory Visagino Linija in Lithuania’s Visaginas, some 50 kilometres away from his hometown. The man says it is difficult to find a job in Latvia, but there are many vacancies and higher salaries in Lithuania.
“Let me put it this way: you can find a job in Latvia, but for a minimum wage, you know, small money, but here it pays more. I have worked in a similar job before, so it is not difficult for me here,” Sokolov told LRT TV.
Tatyana Tretyakova also commutes to Visaginas from Daugavpils. She said she was looking for a job in Latvia and even considered going abroad to work. However, she saw a job offer in Lithuania and decided to stay closer to home.
“I saw a job offer in Lithuania on social media. I filled in an application and within half an hour I got a call offering me good conditions,” she said.
“I’ve only been working for half a month and I haven’t received my full salary yet, but I hope it will be what they offered. For comparison, the minimum wage in Latvia is 700 euros. In your country, it is more. I really like it here and I’m glad I didn’t have to go abroad to work,” the woman added.
The furniture factory Visagino Linija employs 700 people, 10% of whom are Latvian.
According to the company’s director Andrius Lickanas, the Latvian population is a great help to employers in northeastern Lithuania, as the labour market in this region is already exhausted.
“The situation is such that there are more orders, production is expanding, and naturally more workers are needed. And there are none. Searches are taking place all over the region, and since we are close to the Latvian border, the radius naturally extends to our neighbouring country,” Lickanas explained.
“We have also been working with the Latvian Employment Service, and they have taken an interest in us. That’s how the cooperation started. It’s a win-win situation,” he said.
Latvians working in Visaginas are paid more than the minimum wage. Company vehicles also provide transport to and from work. Moreover, Latvian workers enjoy the same benefits as Lithuanians.
“We have supplementary health insurance, which is the same for Latvians in Lithuania. We have our own canteen where we reimburse catering services, and we have a gym where our employees can do sports. They work in shifts, so they don’t have to go to work every day, which is also very convenient,” said Lina Kislaja, HR manager of Visagino Linija.
Daugavpils is part of Latvia’s Latgale region, which has extremely low wages, notes Algirdas Bartkus, an associate professor of economics at Vilnius University. The average wage in the region is 894 euros after tax, compared to the Latvian average of 1,213 euros.
“In this region, unemployment statistics are also very poor. In Latvia, the average registered unemployment rate is 5.1%, and in Latgale it is 10.3%. In other words, this is such a poor region of Latvia that, of course, people want to get out of it,” Bartkus said.
According to the economist, Latvians who come to work in Lithuania not only receive much higher salaries but they can also benefit from lower prices in shops.
“Latvian products are cheaper in our shops than in their own shops in Latvia. This means that people here not only get a higher salary and a job but also have the opportunity to buy cheaper Latvian products every time they return home,” Bartkus said.
He predicts that even more Latvians will enter the Lithuanian labour market, especially from the Latgale region.
“We see how poor the Latgale region is. It is, in fact, a social problem for the whole of Latvia. The fact that jobs are being created here allows us to solve the social problems of that region of Latvia,” the economist said. (LRT)