Compared to the previous quarter, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 percentage points, and over the year by 0.7 percentage points.
In the 2nd quarter of this year, there were 73.4 thousand unemployed persons aged 15 to 74, which is 10.1 thousand fewer than a year ago and by 1.3 thousand fewer than in the previous quarter.
In the 1st quarter of 2021, the unemployment rate in Latvia (8.1 %) was by 0.3 percentage points higher than the average in the European Union (7.8 %). In the 2nd quarter, Latvia had the highest unemployment rate in the Baltic states - in Estonia it was 6.9 %, but in Lithuania - 7.4 %.
In the 2nd quarter of 2021, 37.6 thousand unemployed persons were out of job for up to 5 months. It is by 5.3 thousand less than a year ago and by 0.9 thousand less than in the previous quarter. 15.8 thousand were unemployed for 6-11 months. The number of unemployed persons has decreased compared to the 2nd quarter of the previous year (by 2.2 thousand) but has increased compared to the previous quarter (by 1.5 thousand).
In the 2nd quarter there were 19.6 thousand long-term unemployed persons - by 2.8 thousand less than a year ago and by 2.3 thousand less than in the previous quarter. The share of the long-term unemployed persons in the total number of unemployed was 26.8% - by 2.5 percentage points less than in the previous quarter. Compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, it has decreased by 0.1 percentage points.
Youth unemployment
In the 2nd quarter of 2021, 12.9 % of all unemployed persons were young people (15–24 years). Their share decreased by 0.7 percentage points over the year but increased by 1.5 percentage points compared to the previous quarter. Youth unemployment rate was 16.7 %, which is by 1.5 percentage points lower than a year ago and by 0.4 percentage points higher than in the previous quarter. Over the year, the number of youth unemployed has decreased by 1.8 thousand but increased by 1.0 thousand compared to the previous quarter.
