In the second quarter of 2016 the unemployment rate in Latvia accounted for 9.5% of the workforce.
The unemployment rate dropped by 0.8 percentage points over the quarter and by 0.3 percentage points over the year.
In the 2nd quarter, 94,500 people aged 15–74 were unemployed – 2,600 fewer than a year before and 7,100 thousand fewer than in the previous quarter.
However, Latvia's unemployment rate still is the highest in the Baltic states; in the second quarter of 2016 the unemployment rate in Estonia accounted for 6.5% and in Lithuania 8.0%.
40.3% of the unemployed have been without work for 12 months or more. During the year, the share of long-term unemployed persons has dropped by 2.7 percentage points.
In a worrying trend, youth unemployment actually rose. In the second quarter of 2016, the youth unemployment rate was 18.9% – 3.7 percentage points more than a year ago and 3.9 percentage points more than in the first quarter.
