As harvest season approaches, farmers concerned about lack of workforce asked authorities to allow guest worker employment. Ministers, however, are wary of this request, reported Latvian Television on May 27.
The increase in the number of unemployed people has slowed down significantly over the past weeks, said Evita Simsone, director of the State Employment Agency (NVA) in an interview to Latvian Radio on May 22.
Latvian non-governmental farmer organizations invite responsible authorities to participate more actively in tackling border crossing issues so guest workers from third countries could be employed in agriculture, "Zemnieku saeima" said in a media statement on May 21.
Even with increased unemployment in the first half of 2020, seasonal rural jobs still lack the necessary workforce with certain skills at certain times, reports Latvian Radio.
Due to the emergency situation in Latvia, which has brought a drastic decline in travel and economic activity, Rīga Airport has started consultations with trade unions representing airport employees on the implementation of the collective redundancy process, airport management announced April 7. The redundancies could affect around 500 workers.
Many Latvian farms lacked the necessary amount of workers even before the Covid-19 novel coronavirus pandemic, and are turning to those newly unemployed due to the crisis to find new work hands, according to Latvian Agricultural Organization Cooperation Council (LOSP) Director General Guntis Vilnītis on March 29.
Many companies are closed during the Covid-19 outbreak, with employees staying home. But others are seeing increased demand for services and products. These latter now tend to absorb part of the workforce that is seeing downtime, reported Latvian Radio march 25.
Latvia's Welfare Minister Ramona Petraviča (KPV LV) said March 24 that cuts to the duration of unemployment benefits could be reversed.
The number of companies who've notified the State Employment Agency about mass lay-offs due to the Covid-19 virus outbreak is up to 10, with a total of 1,660 people to be fired.
The State Employment Agency (NVA) has received eight notifications of mass lay-offs, affecting 699 to 724 employees.
In the future at least 1% of Cēsis residents could be working at various IT and data analytics companies, as 135 people have already applied to an initiative that includes three months of training to become a data analyst.
Along with Latvian, Russian and English, companies are increasingly asking that potential employees know a Scandinavian language, but experts say that although the situation is improving, employer needs frequently exceed the abilities of potential employees, according to a Latvian Radio broadcast on February 12.
Latvia has the second lowest minimum wage in Europe after Bulgaria, according to data published by Eurostat on February 3.
The non-profit state joint-stock postal services company Latvijas Pasts plans on minimizing the number of employees and closing post office branches in the regional areas of Latvia, Latvijas Pasts Board Chair Mārcis Vilcāns said in an interview on Latvian Radio’s “Krustpuntā” broadcast on January 22.
According to the State Employment Agency (NVA), 6.2% (57,808 persons) of economically active Latvian citizens were registered as unemployed at the end of 2019, which is 0.4% (53,783 persons) higher than the previous month, the LETA news agency reported January 10.
The catering industry is suffering from an acute worker shortage on all levels – from servers to dish washers, according to a Latvian Radio broadcast on January 2.
The Latvian government on December 10 supported the removal of several bureaucratic obstacles to hiring employees from third countries, reported the LETA newswire.
Data released by the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) on November 2 show that in the third quarter of 2019, compared to the third quarter of 2018, average monthly gross wages and salaries grew by 8.3 % or EUR 84, reaching EUR 1 091 for full-time work.
Employers can apply for a new employee training program until November 19, according to the State Employment Agency. This training is organized as a part of the European Social Fund “Support to the education of unemployed people” (sic) project. It's an opportunity for employers to receive grant vouchers for training necessary specialists in a workplace atmosphere by selecting and training the unemployed persons registered at the agency.
While Latvian entrepreneurs often say it's difficult to find employees in the country, Latvia still has a rather high unemployment rate and there's a big reserve of labor, said Bank of Latvia economist Uldis Rutkaste at the Latvian central bank annual conference.
On September 18th, retail chain Maxima Latvija and the Latvian Retail Employee Union (LTDA) announced they had signed a new collective work agreement after negotiations.
The Free Trade Union Confederation of Latvia was not informed over the plan to cut unemployment benefits starting next year, said the union's deputy head Irēna Liepiņa.
The duration and amount of unemployment benefits are to be cut starting next year, said Welfare Minister Ramona Petraviča (KPV LV) appearing on LTV September 16.
Data published by the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) September 13 show that, compared to the 2nd quarter of 2018, in the 2nd quarter of 2019 hourly labor costs rose by 8.9 % or 79 cents, reaching EUR 9.60. Seasonally adjusted data show increase of 7.0 %.
The number of work permits issued in Latvia to foreigners has been growing steadily, reaching 9,738 until September, or almost as much as through 2018 in total, reported LTV's De facto September 9.
Figures released by the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) show that in the 2nd quarter of 2019 Latvia's unemployment rate constituted 6.4 %.
Latvia on June 13 failed to secure Rīga as the headquarters of the new European Labour Authority (ELA).
The average net wage grew to €948 a month in 2018, according to an annual survey that compares official wage statistics to employee reports. It turns out that the average real net wage is 22% higher than the figure in official data, the research says.
Existing employment promotion programs in Latvia need to be improved, with a special emphasis on returning the long-term unemployed to the labor market according to conclusions expressed by experts from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) at a conference in Rīga April 16.
Data released by the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) March 18 show that in 2018 there were 22,700 job vacancies in Latvia, which is 5,700 vacancies or 33.4 % more than in 2017.