The male unemployment rate rose by 0.7 percentage points to 8.6 % in December, while for females it increased by 0.3 percentage points to 6.6 %.
The unemployment rate registered with the State Employment Agency (SEA) was 6.7 %, 0.3 percentage points higher than in November. Compared to December last year, the actual unemployment rate decreased by 0.4 percentage points and the registered unemployment rate - by 1.0 percentage point.
In December 2021, there were 71.4 thousand unemployed persons (30.6 thousand females and 40.9 thousand males) in Latvia, which is 4.4 thousand more than in November and 4.4 thousand fewer than in the same period last year. The number of unemployed males increased by 3.3 thousand during the month, while the number of unemployed females increased by 1.2 thousand. It should be noted that in November, a requirement came into force whereby employed persons in public, municipal institutions and in the private sector whose work entailed an increased risk of exposure to Covid-19 could only continue to perform their duties with a certificate of vaccination or re-vaccination, thus potentially increasing the number of unemployed persons.