Close to two thirds (64.2%) of the population of Latvia were employed as of the third quarter of this year, new data from the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia has found.
According to the data, some 880,100 people aged 15 to 74 were employed as of Q3 2024, while in the age group aged 75 to 89 there were an additional 6,100 employed persons.
Decline in unemployment rate
On a year-on-year basis, the employment rate for those aged 15 to 74 has declined by 0.5 percentage points, or 10,800 people, while compared to the second quarter of the year, the rate has fallen by 0.1 percentage points (or 2,300).
The employment rate for men totalled 66.7% as of the third quarter, while for women it stood at 62.0%. Some 7.8% of the total are self-employed, while 4.9% are employers, and 0.9% unpaid family workers.
The employment rate for young people aged 15–24 was 30.8% in Q3 2024, down 1.6 percentage points from the previous year. In total, 58,200 young people were employed in the quarter, slightly higher than in the corresponding period the previous year.
In terms of working hours, Latvians worked an average of 38.5 hours per week in their main job in Q3 2024, which was 0.7 hours more than in the previous quarter and 0.1 hours fewer than in the same period in 2023.
Additionally, 7.8% said that they worked part-time, which was a small decrease from both the previous quarter and the same quarter in the previous year.
Latvia’s employment rate is above the EU average, however it was the lowest among the Baltic states as of the third quarter of the year, with Estonia at 69.1% and Lithuania at 66.7%. Read more here.
Unemployment rate
In the third quarter of 2024, Latvia’s unemployment rate was 6.7%, a decrease of 0.2 percentage points on a quarter-on-quarter basis, and a 0.2 percentage point increase compared to the same period last year.
The unemployment rate for men was 7.9%, while for women it was 5.4%. Read more here.
