Share of higher education holders in Latvia's labor market grows

A Central Statistical Bureau estimate published on April 17 shows that 42.7 % of the 806 thousand people employed on the national labor market (people aged 25 and over) had higher education at the beginning of 2023. 

The figure has grown by 0.7 percentage points over the year and by 1.5 percentage points over the two years.

One in four employed (24.5 %) had acquired a master’s degree, 13.9 % a bachelor’s degree, 3.6 % short-cycle tertiary (college) education, and 0.7 % a doctorate. Upper secondary education was completed by 37.1 % of the employed persons, post-secondary non-tertiary education by 13.5 %, lower secondary education (second stage of primary education) by 6.4 %, and first stage of primary education by 0.3 %.

To view this resource, we need your consent to the use of cookies.

In 2023, almost half (45.1 %) of the employed persons aged 25 and over were managers, professionals, or technicians and associate professionals. More than a fifth (21.4 %) were skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers, craft and related trades workers, or plant and machine operators and assemblers, and one fifth (20.0 %) were clerical support workers or service and sales workers. Elementary occupations engaged just 12.7 % of the number.

Among technicians and associate professionals, the share of employed persons having higher (tertiary) education has gone up by 1.1 percentage points (58.9 % in 2022 and 60.0 % in 2023) while among managers (70.6 % in 2022 and 70.0 % in 2023) as well as professionals (87.0 % in 2022 and 86.4 % in 2023) gone down by 0.6 percentage points. The proportion of people with higher education in the group of clerical support workers almost has not changed (41.8 % in 2022 and 41.9 % in 2023), whereas that among skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers has risen by 1.5 percentage points (2.6 % in 2022 and 4.1 % in 2023). More employed persons having higher education (up by 0.3 percentage points) were also registered among armed forces occupations (39.5 % in 2022 and 39.8 % in 2023) as well as among plant and machine operators and assemblers (8.9 % and 9.2 %).

To view this resource, we need your consent to the use of cookies.

At the beginning of 2023, the highest employment rate (91.9 %) within the population aged 25–64 was among people having doctorate, followed by those with short-cycle tertiary education (85.6 %), master’s degree (84.5 %), and bachelor’s degree (82.7 %). The lowest employment rate within this age group (9.2 %) was registered for people with no formal education or with less than primary education.

To view this resource, we need your consent to the use of cookies.

 

Seen a mistake?

Select text and press Ctrl+Enter to send a suggested correction to the editor

Select text and press Report a mistake to send a suggested correction to the editor

Related articles

More

Most important