The unemployment rate in Latvia stood at 7.2% in the first quarter of the year, a marginal increase (0.4 percentage points) on the previous quarter.
The rate is up 0.8 percentage points since the first quarter of 2023, the data, from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) conducted by Latvia’s Central Statistical Bureau (CSB), found.
As of Q1 2024, there were approximately 68,700 unemployed persons in Latvia (aged between 15 and 74), which is 8,900 more than a year ago, and 4,500 more than in the previous quarter.
In Q4 2023, the Latvian unemployment rate was 6.8%, which was 0.7 percentage points higher than the EU average of 6.1%.
By the first quarter of 2024, it had decreased and was lower than in neighbouring Estonia (7.8%) and Lithuania (8.2%), the data showed.
Long-term unemployment
In Q1 2024, slightly more than half of unemployed persons, around 36,700 individuals, had been without a job for up to five months. This represents an increase of 2,800 from a year ago and 2,500 from the previous quarter.
There were 11,200 individuals unemployed for 6 to 11 months, while 20,500 individuals had been unemployed for a year or more.
In the same quarter, young people (aged 15–24) accounted for 11.4% of all unemployed people in Latvia. This share has decreased by 3.0 percentage points over the year and by 2.1 percentage points over the quarter.
Some 35.1% of these were economically active, meaning they were either employed or actively seeking employment (unemployed), while 64.9% were inactive, with most still in education and not actively seeking jobs.
